This kind of private cuisine, if not cooked well, may be fatal.

Original editorial department mo mo Chang Xiao healthy

In July this year, two suspected food poisoning incidents occurred in Guangdong, a major food province. Immediately after the beginning of August, Guangdong CDC issued an urgent reminder: home-made fermented food and preserved food, such as bacon, bacon, kimchi, lobster sauce, bean paste, fermented bean curd and stinky tofu, may cause botulinum toxin poisoning [1]!

Even Cantonese, who love to eat and know how to eat best, are under threat, so it’s worth us to find out.

One microgram of botulinum toxin is enough to kill!

When making fermented food at home, it is easy to produce a lot of toxins during the fermentation process because the food raw materials and fermentation utensils are not completely clean.

Botulinum toxin is a neurotoxin secreted by Clostridium botulinum. Botulinum is good at living in anaerobic environment, such as fermentation, and many fermentation processes are anaerobic environment. There are a, b, c, d, e, f and G7 "brothers" in his family. The toxins produced by the first four "brothers" under certain conditions are harmful to human health to varying degrees.

Among them, the lethal rate of type A is the strongest, less than 1 microgram is enough to kill, and it is the most toxic substance among the known biological and chemical toxins [1].

After botulinum toxin poisoning, there will be three kinds of poisoning symptoms with different manifestations [1]:

Poisoning incubation period: only manifested as motor nerve paralysis symptoms, people will be tired, weak, headache, first class;

Then: blurred vision, drooping eyelids, hoarseness and dysphagia;

Severe poisoning: dyspnea, severe death due to respiratory failure.

If the rescue is not timely, the mortality rate is as high as 30%. Even if it is used for injection of botulinum toxin for medical beauty, there are still some security risks.

Homemade fermentation,

Health risks go beyond botulinum toxin.

According to the statistics of China CDC and Institute of Food Safety, microbial food poisoning ranks first in food poisoning cases. Besides botulinum toxin, there are four kinds of health hazards in homemade fermented food [2]!

Self-made cereal: acidosis by rice yeast

During the fermentation process of rice and flour food, Aspergillus and yeast are mainly relied on. If the fermentation environment or storage environment is improper, it is easy to mix with Pseudomonas cocoanum, and the rice fermentation acid produced by it is extremely harmful to important organs such as liver, kidney, heart and brain.

There is no specific medicine to treat after poisoning, and the mortality rate is 40%~100%. The poisoning incident of sour soup in Heilongjiang in 2020 was caused by this highly toxic substance.

9 people eat, 8 people die! In fact, the chief culprit of Heilongjiang sour soup poisoning incident is it!

Self-brewing: methanol poisoning

Home-brewed fruit wine has a complicated process and complicated procedures. Compared with industrial brewing, the probability of contamination by miscellaneous bacteria is greatly increased, and other alcohols except ethanol will be produced, such as methanol, which will cause optic neuropathy and severe blindness after drinking.

In industrial brewing, in addition to the sterilization of raw materials before brewing, there are also quality inspection processes such as ozone sterilization, sulfur dioxide disinfection and methanol content monitoring, which are impossible for home brewing.

Homemade yogurt: bacterial food poisoning

Yogurt is a common drink in daily life, but the risk of homemade yogurt is not small.

The raw milk is rich in nutrients, and the fermentation temperature needs to be controlled at 40℃. If the control is not in place during the operation, it may be mixed with miscellaneous bacteria and multiply in large quantities, which may cause bacterial food poisoning.

Self-made sauerkraut and pickles: nitrite poisoning

Some studies have found that the nitrite content of home-made pickled cabbage reaches the peak of 250mg/kg after being pickled for about a week, while the nitrite content of home-made pickled cabbage is not high, only 10mg/kg within a week, and it drops rapidly. Compared with pickled cabbage, the risk of poisoning of pickled cabbage is smaller.

Therefore, the curing time of the two must be strictly controlled.

(Source: Cai Lu. Homemade fermented food has safety risks)

How to balance safety and delicacy?

So, how can friends who like homemade fermented food or eat fermented food give consideration to safety and traditional delicacy? Remember the following four points:

one

Fermentation raw materials should be carefully selected

Selection of fermentation raw materials, such as fruits and vegetables, bean products, rice flour, etc., should be based on the first principle of freshness, pollution-free and mildew-free; Food ingredients should be thoroughly cleaned before fermentation.

At the same time, high-quality and reliable strains should be selected for fermentation.

2

The fermentation container should be disinfected.

The fermenter should be disinfected and cleaned in advance, and the fermentation environment should be clean and tidy [3].

three

Strictly control fermentation time and temperature.

For example, the fermentation time of sauerkraut and kimchi is obviously different. Pickled sauerkraut should be pickled for at least 10 days, waiting for the nitrite content to subside greatly.

Some fermented foods that need to be placed for a long time should also pay attention to temperature changes and be careful of mixed bacteria pollution.

four

Preserve properly and eat reasonably.

Like ordinary food, fermented food should also pay attention to storage problems, some should be sealed and refrigerated, and some should be exhausted in advance to avoid food being polluted again in unfavorable environment.

In a word, home-made food should not only take into account traditional delicacies, but also pay attention to safety issues. Gourmets who have no production experience should not try it easily!

References:

[1] Li Jian. Beware of botulinum toxin in homemade food in summer [N]. China Consumer News, 2023-07-13 (004). DOI: 10.28867/n.cnki.nxfzb.20087.0000000000001

[2] Cai Lu. Homemade fermented food has safety risks [J]. Science World, 2021(05):74-79.

[3][4] The picture in this article comes from the photo network.

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