Prevention in the summer
Food Poisoning Guidelines
In May, the capital enters summer at the beginning of the year, half of the city is green, half of the city is flowery.
The taste of summer, you will know it by taking a sip,
Ice cream and watermelon are the reasons why I love summer.
……
In fact
There has always been a group of "assassins" lurking around the food.
They may be good at stealth,
or good at imitation, casually swallowing,
Not only "seeking money", but even "killing people".
Mild vomiting and diarrhea,
The most important thing is "there is no return".
Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid!
Please receive this
Guidelines for the prevention of food poisoning in summer,
"A melt-in-your-mouth summer".
Go to Family Groups,
And also guarantee that this summer,
Mom cut the watermelon on top,
There is no taste of green onion, ginger and garlic!
The first part of the guide
Meet the "Invisible Assassins"
The rise in temperature is conducive to the reproduction of microorganisms, and there are many invisible "assassins" - foodborne pathogens hidden in the foods we often eat such as seafood, meat, eggs and milk.
Seafood stealth assassin - Vibrio parahaemolyticus
As the saying goes, summer and seafood go well, but Vibrio parahaemolyticus and seafood may be more "right". The main food contaminated by Vibrio parahaemolyticus is seafood, including a variety of marine fish, shrimp, crabs, shellfish, etc.
The main symptoms are nausea, vomiting (not many times), abdominal pain, and the main characteristics are paroxysmal colic in the periumbilicus, diarrhea, often watery stools, and some low-grade fever. In severe cases, it can lead to dehydration, a drop in blood pressure, and even shock.
Invisible assassin of meat, eggs and milk - Salmonella
Salmonella mainly contaminates meat, eggs, milk and their products. Patients infected with Salmonella present with abdominal pain, diarrhoea (yellowish-green, watery, sometimes bloody, or mucus), and fever.
People with weakened immune systems, such as children, the elderly, and pregnant women, have more severe symptoms of infection and serious complications such as chills, convulsions, convulsions, and coma.
High-protein food stealth assassin
- Staphylococcus aureus
Common foods that are easily contaminated are protein-rich foods, such as meat and meat products, eggs and their products, milk and dairy products, cream cakes, etc.
Staphylococcus aureus has a cute name, but it has a powerful weapon - enterotoxin, which is highly heat-resistant, and cannot be completely destroyed by heating to 100°C for 30 minutes [1], and can still cause disease in humans.
The symptoms of enterotoxin poisoning often manifest as nausea, severe vomiting, abdominal pain and other acute gastroenteritis symptoms, with a short course of disease and strong lethality.
Part 2 of the guide
Beware of "imitating assassins"
During the season when the grass grows and the warbler flies, people have to go on outings, and while rushing to the feast of nature, they must also be wary of some "imitation assassins" - poisonous plants.
Crarrow Rui - Water celery mimics the Assassin
Crocous vulgaris is commonly known as "wild celery", the leaves are like kidney-like round, the flowers are small, the petals are yellow, the whole plant is toxic, the flowers are more toxic, and the toxins such as mulchloside and pulsatilla are contained. Huryoside can cause photosensitive dermatitis.
Human ingestion poisoning is manifested as burning and swelling of the mouth, difficulty in chewing, dilated pupils, difficulty breathing, etc., and in severe cases, it can die.
The leaves of water celery are pinnate compound leaves with white flowers.
Shi Longrui
Mizuserina
Daylily - Daylily imitates the Assassin
Daylily is a kind of daylily plant, except for daylily, the rest of the daylily are inedible. What we see in flower beds every day is daylilies or daylilies of golden dolls.
Daylilies contain a lot of colchicine, which is difficult to get rid of by cooking and processing, so poisoning will occur after accidental ingestion.
Daylilies
Daylily
Mandala - Super mimic assassin
Mandala is also known as goldenrod, trumpet flower, etc., the whole plant is poisonous, and the fruit, especially the seed, is the most toxic. The main toxic substances are alkaloids such as hyoscyamine, scopolamine and atropine, and the stems, leaves and seeds are similar to some ingredients (such as okra, spinach, etc.) or medicinal materials, and often cause mandala poisoning due to mixing and accidental ingestion.
The earliest and most typical clinical manifestations are anticholinergic syndromes, characterized by dryness and flushing of the skin and mucous membranes, as well as dilated pupils and sinus tachycardia [2].
The route of mandala poisoning also includes respiratory inhalation, eye and skin contact, etc. Although this kind of flower is beautiful, you should stay away from it when you see it, and you should not touch it, pick it or eat it!
Flowers of the mandala
Part 3 of the guide
Defense
Although the "assassins" around the food are varied and stealthy, we can still "surrender without a fight", and the defense cheats are the five points of food safety [3]!
1. Keep it clean
Wash your hands before eating, after using the toilet, before and during cooking, especially during cross-processing of raw and cooked foods or after making or receiving phone calls.
Pay attention to keeping the kitchen hygienic and dry, such as utensils, chopstick cages, knives and cutting boards, especially rags, which should be washed and disinfected frequently.
Avoid insects, pests, and other animals from entering the kitchen and touching food, such as covering or storing food in airtight containers, keeping garbage cans tightly lid and removing garbage regularly, and keeping animals away from food preparation areas.
2. Separate raw and cooked
"Raw" refers to raw materials that also need to be heat-treated, such as raw meat, poultry and raw seafood, cooking ingredients such as onions, ginger and garlic.
"Cooked" refers to foods that are eaten directly, such as fruits such as watermelon.
The separation of raw and cooked food is to avoid contamination of food with pathogenic bacteria carried on raw food and cause foodborne diseases. Avoid contact with raw and cooked food by storing it separately in utensils. Special attention should also be paid to the separation of utensils for processing raw and cooked food, such as knives, cutting boards, etc.; Do not splash water soaked in raw meat on cooked and ready-to-eat foods.
Therefore, try not to use a knife that has cut "onions, ginger and garlic" and then cut the watermelon, which will not only affect the flavor, but also may have the hidden danger of food poisoning!
3. Boiled Toru
The general rule of thumb is to cook the poultry until the juice is clear and the meat is no longer pink. Cook the eggs and seafood until all are boiling. For soups or stews, they should continue to boil for at least one minute.
If it's a large piece of meat, such as whole chicken, it should take a little longer to simmer after boiling. When reheating cooked food, it should also be thoroughly heated.
When eating snails, shells, crabs and other aquatic products, it is unsafe to eat raw, semi-raw, wine bubbles, vinegar bubbles or salted directly after eating, especially pregnant women, children, the elderly and other immunocompromised people try to avoid raw food diet, eggs are recommended to be eaten after cooking.
Processed lentils should be cooked thoroughly until they lose their original green color, and fresh daylily should be soaked in water or blanched in boiling water, discarded and fried before eating.
4. Store food at a safe temperature
The vast majority of microorganisms prefer room temperature and are unlikely to survive above 70°C or below 4°C. In summer, cooked food should not be stored at room temperature for more than 2 hours, and all cooked and perishable foods should be stored in the refrigerator in time. Do not store leftovers in the refrigerator for more than 3 days, and repeat the heat more than once.
Food thawing should be carried out in the refrigerator or in a cold environment, and should not be thawed at room temperature, which is easy to breed a large number of microorganisms.
However, the refrigerator is not a safe, and some psychrophilic bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes can still grow in a refrigerated environment, so the food taken out of the refrigerator should be thoroughly heated or cleaned before eating.
5. Use safe water and food ingredients
If you want to buy food in a regular supermarket or market, you should pay attention to the content of the food label such as the production date, shelf life, and storage conditions when buying food.
Do not eat food beyond the expiration date, and resolutely do not eat canned food if the packaging is bulging or deformed. Even if you cut off the rotten part of the fruit that has been moldy, it is not recommended to continue eating the leftovers.
Many wild vegetables are very similar to poisonous plants, and there is a high probability of misidentification when picking, so it is not recommended to dig in the wild. Nowadays, many wild vegetables have been artificially planted, and if you want to eat wild vegetables safely, it is recommended that the public buy wild vegetables in regular supermarkets and farmers' markets, and do not buy them at retail vendors.
Although the above knowledge can help us avoid many risks of "being stabbed", there are many kinds of food, and there are many kinds of "assassins" hidden in the food. Especially in summer, the high temperature and humidity environment give the "assassins" a comfortable living space!
If you have gastrointestinal symptoms such as "nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea" or allergic symptoms after eating, you should seek medical attention and describe the suspicious eating history to your doctor.
This summer, I hope everyone can have a "summer" and eat "melon" with peace of mind!
bibliography
[1] Li, Y., Yang, X., Zhang, H., Jia, H., Liu, X., Yu, B., ... & Yang, D. (2020). Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella in the commercial eggs in China. International journal of food microbiology, 325, 108623.
[2] Chinese Preventive Medicine Association Poison Control Branch, Expert Consensus Group on Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute Mandala Poisoning. Chinese Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2023, 32(12):1610-1616.DOI:10.3760/cma.j.issn.1671-0282.2023.12.005.
[3] World Health Organization. Training manual on "Five Key Points of Food Safety" [EB/OL]. (2007). https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/43546/9789245594634_chi.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y.
Contributed by: Jiang Jinru and Wang Chao, Food and Health Institute of the Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention