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Food

26th Jan 2016

What You Shouldn’t Be Eating According To A Food Poisoning Expert

Bad news

Ellen Tannam

Food poisoning is probably one of the grimmest experiences any of us will ever go through. Nothing worse than the cold sweats and vomiting bouts that come after eating a dodgy curry.

Well, now a food poisoning expert has come out with a list of things that he will absolutely never let pass his lips. Bill Marler wrote a blog post on Food Poison Journal about some of the foods that he will never eat.

Unpasteurized (“raw”) milk and packaged juices.

There’s been a recent turn towards unpasteurized dairy products and unpasteurized juices , otherwise known as ‘raw’ but apparently these can cause cases of E. coli and Marler says there’s no real benefit big enough to warrant taking a risk by drinking these.

Raw sprouts

Beansprouts, alfalfa sprouts, and radish sprouts are known to spread infection due to bacterial contamination of their seeds. However, when cooked they are apparently ok to eat.

Prewashed fruit and veg

Marler ‘avoids these like the plague’, because according to him, the more a food is handled and processed, the more likely it is to be tainted. He buys his produce unwashed and washes it himself.

Raw oysters and other raw shellfish.

Marler says that raw shellfish—especially oysters—have been causing more foodborne illness lately. This is linked to rising water temperatures, which produces a higher rate of microbes.  “Oysters are filter feeders, so they pick up everything that’s in the water,” he explains. “If there’s bacteria in the water it’ll get into their system, and if you eat it you could have trouble. I’ve seen a lot more of that over the last five years than I saw in the last 20 years. It’s simply not worth the risk.”

What a buzzkill.

Lead Image via The Telegraph