I’m a scientist – here’s 3 surprising foods that can give you life-threatening food poisoning
WE’VE all experienced it: that sudden feeling that something inside us just isn’t right.
This is quickly followed by an ominous stomach-churning, then 24 hours of violent illness – to put it lightly.
Cases of dreaded food poisoning are rising in the UK and US, despite improving health and safety measures.
This has become more apparent in recent weeks after one Brit died in March after she caught listeriosis through a contaminated cheese.
Listeriosis is a rare infection caused by bacteria called listeria.
You can get it from lots of types of food, but it’s mainly a problem with chilled, ready-to-eat foods.
This week, Muller which manufactures Cadbury-branded desserts has recalled a number of items from its product line.
The dairy giant has issued the recall due to the possible presence of Listeria.
Symptoms of a listeriosis infection can be similar to flu and include high temperature, muscle aches or pain, chills feeling or being sick and diarrhoea.
However, some people are more vulnerable to infection, including those over the age of 65, pregnant women and their unborn babies, babies less than one-month-old and people with weakened immune systems.
Some experts have shared some of the foods most likely to leave you hanging over a loo.
1. Ice cream
It’s a go-to summer treat, but an ice cream could leave you with more than you bargained for.
When you think of food poisoning, no doubt your first thought is under cooked meat from a BBQ or food that’s on the turn.
But it turns out ice cream could be one of the worst offending foods, experts have warned.
Amreen Bashir, a lecturer in biomedical sciences at Aston University in Birmingham, said any food taken on a picnic poses a food poisoning risk.
“During the summer, more people cook outside at picnics and barbecues, removing the safety a kitchen provides – the sink to wash your hands in, the sterilised counter tops to prepare food on, the thermostat-controlled cooking and refrigeration to kill bacteria,” she wrote for The Conversation.
“The usual bacterial suspects include campylobacter, salmonella, E. coli and listeria, all of which thrive in the summer’s warmer temperatures, causing spikes in the number of food poisoning cases reported.”
2. Sprouts
Uncooked and lightly cooked sprouts have been linked to more than 30 bacterial outbreaks of deadly bugs.
As recently as 2014, salmonella from sprouts sent 19 people to the hospital in the US.
According to the Food Standards Agency, all types of sprouts—including alfalfa, mung bean, clover and radish sprouts—can spread infection, which is caused by bacterial contamination of their seeds.
In an Instagram video on food poisoning, gut health scientist Jordan Haworth said: “I know sprouts are supposed to be a superfood, but the risk just isn’t worth the reward, in my opinion.”
3. Salad
Surprisingly, the medic said that salad – specifically the pre-packaged stuff – poses a big risk to health.
One likely source of contamination is water used to irrigate lettuce fields.
When manure from a nearby feedlot gets into the lettuce irrigation system, the bacteria from an animal’s poop may end up in your salad.
According to Secrets of your Supermarket Food, on Channel 5 , bagged salad is now the second biggest cause of e-coli.
Doctor Primrose Freestone, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Microbiology, said on the documentary: “What’s now being realised is that there is a potential infection risk associated with bagged salads.
“The European Union Foods Standards Agency now actually regards bagged salads as the second most frequent cause of food poisoning.”