2023-08-21 03:20:34
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The food expert advises to think twice before ordering a plate of raw oysters
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Bill Marler is a food safety attorney who has handled cases of E. coli, salmonella, listeria and other foodborne illnesses over the past 30 years. Marler was featured in the new Netflix documentary Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food.
Marler spoke to the BBC about the foods you should stay away from if you want to avoid getting sick.
Life was going well for Stephanie Engberg, a 17-year-old American girl from St. Louis, when she headed to a resort in the Dominican Republic with her parents for spring break.
She had an upset stomach before she got on the plane, but she didn’t give it a second thought and even felt better when she arrived. Her condition worsened during the night, and she ended up in the hospital.
The next morning she did not recognize her mother, her kidneys stopped working, she had brain swelling and suffered from epileptic seizures.
Her parents arranged an emergency medical evacuation back to the United States, where they confirmed she had a serious bacterial infection, E. coli (a germ normally found in the large intestine of warm-blooded creatures. Most strains of E. coli are harmless, but some can cause serious food poisoning). . Her condition deteriorated overnight, she fell into a coma and a priest was called to perform the last rites.
Stephanie is one of the main contributors to the documentary Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food, which examines how a lack of hygiene in our food chain can lead to truly devastating consequences for consumers.
When the priest began to pray, Stephanie opened her eyes, saying that she would survive but would suffer for life because of her E. coli infection.
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Even leafy green vegetables can be deadly foodstuffs, as the water used for irrigation can be contaminated with bacteria from nearby livestock farms.
“I have to take medication every day to try to boost the blood-filtering processes in my kidneys…There is a possibility that I will have to have a kidney transplant…and he will have to do dialysis for the rest of my life,” Stephanie says in the documentary.
“I ate a salad, and because of it, I have long-term health effects.”
Stephanie is one of the 600 million people the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates get sick each year from eating contaminated food. Fortunately, Stephanie was not one of the 420,000 who died from eating contaminated food.
Watching what you eat can save your life, so here’s what Bill Marler suggests you should avoid in order to stay healthy.
Unpasteurized milk and canned juices
Marler’s long experience as a food safety attorney has led to a reluctance to eat fresh or unpasteurized dairy products or unpasteurized juices.
The reason for his reluctance is the same E. coli bacteria that made Stephanie so ill.
“Any perceived health benefits of unpasteurized milk are not worth the risk… People have forgotten about diseases that existed in the 19th century,” says Bill Marler.
raw sprouts
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Bean sprouts grow in ideal conditions for bacterial reproduction
Marler also does not eat raw sprouts such as alfalfa sprouts, lentil sprouts or bean sprouts.
These raw sprouts have been linked to some of the largest foodborne disease outbreaks in the world. In 2011, an outbreak of a disease linked to fenugreek seeds in Germany left up to 900 people with kidney failure, and there were more than 50 deaths.
“The seeds become contaminated when they are grown outside, and when you bring them inside and put them in a nice water bath to germinate in, you have created the perfect environment for bacteria to grow,” says Marler.
“I don’t know anyone who eats raw sprouts who work in food safety,” he adds.
Undercooked meat
With minced meat, any bacteria on the surface of the piece of meat gets mixed into it during the mincing process, which is why it’s important to cook hamburgers well, for example.
It takes some bacteria to make you seriously ill.
“About 50 E. coli bacteria is enough to kill you; 100,000 of them take up the space of a pinhead… It’s not something you can see, taste or smell… So cooking a hamburger thoroughly is the only safe way,” says Marler. .
He recommends that you cook your burgers at 155 degrees Fahrenheit (69 degrees Celsius) to kill off any pathogens.
When it comes to steaks, the risk is usually low, as the cooking process kills the bacteria on the surface of the steak.
Washed or pre-cooked fruits and vegetables
“When you eat a hamburger, the most dangerous part of it is not the minced meat, but the onions, lettuce and tomatoes,” says Mansour Samadpour, a food safety consultant on the Netflix documentary.
In 2006, there was a major outbreak of E. coli caused by spinach, with more than 200 people getting sick and up to five people dying in the United States.
The bacterial contamination was eventually linked to a spinach farm in California that had been parasitized by some animals whose feces had contaminated the spinach with E. coli.
When the spinach plants were collected and sent to a facility where they were washed three times, the bacteria spread and were shipped across the country, sickening many.
“Is the convenience of pre-washed lettuce worth the risk of damage from so many hands?” says Marler.
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Marler cautions against pre-washed vegetables and fruits
Raw eggs and undercooked eggs
The danger of eggs lies in the salmonella infection that they may cause. Salmonella is a common bacteria that can cause diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and stomach cramps. It can also cause severe illness or even death in some cases in the very young and the elderly.
Recent history has seen many egg-related disasters: in 1988 fears of salmonella led the UK government to slaughter more than two million chickens. And in 2010, a similar threat caused 500 million eggs to be withdrawn from the market in the United States.
Marler says eggs are safer today than they used to be, but he urges caution and believes salmonella still poses a risk to consumers of raw or undercooked eggs.
“About one in every 10,000 eggs contains salmonella. Chickens can get salmonella in the ovaries, so the bacteria gets into the egg and there’s nothing you can do about it other than cook the eggs well.”
raw shellfish and raw shellfish
The danger of raw shellfish and raw shellfish is that they are filter feeders (filter feeding is a method some animals use to feed by moving through the water, or taking advantage of the water moving around them, to extract small pieces of food and other particles from that water).
This means that if there is a bacterial or viral infection in the water, it will easily enter the food chain. Marler believes the problem is exacerbated by global warming.
“As the ocean warms, there is an increase in forms of contamination related to shellfish: hepatitis, norovirus, etc… I’m from Seattle and some of the best shellfish in the world come from the Pacific Northwest, but there are clearly ongoing problems with “Water quality and temperature. It’s a new risk factor to consider when you order that raw oyster.”
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Escherichia coli may cause serious illness symptoms
Ready-to-coated sandwiches
“Check the expiry date on the wrapper of your sandwich,” Marler advises. “It’s best to eat the food we prepare ourselves or the food that is prepared and prepared in front of us.”
He points out that the main risk factor is the expiration date, which, if missed, could lead to exposure to Listeria monocytogenes – a very nasty bacterium.
He says it kills many people both in the United States and around the world and almost everyone who gets it ends up in the hospital.
“Listeria monocytogenes grows and multiplies in refrigerator temperatures, so if someone makes you a sandwich and you eat it right away, the risk of Listeria infection is low in that case…But if you store it in the refrigerator for a week before eating it, it gives Listeria a chance to grow and multiply.” enough to make you sick.”
Usually “good sushi”
The famous sushi dish – the safety of which many question – does not seem to concern Marler, although he acknowledges the need to be careful when buying it.
“I often prefer going to a good sushi restaurant than going to a steak house,” he says. “The risk of fish poisoning is not high.”
“I don’t buy sushi from a grocery store,” he says. “A good sushi restaurant is very safe because fish is a bit of a safer option when it comes to bacterial infection…or you could say it’s a risk I feel more comfortable with.”
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