Text/A Thousand History
All of the information stated in this article is based on reliable sources of information and is detailed at the end of the article
In April and May, shellfish and seafood are in a good season for plump, such as mussels loved by people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, or Haihong eaten by people in the north, and even jade mussels from Taiwan, and mussels that people in Hong Kong will love, etc., they are actually mussel seafood.
Although there are different names and varieties, mussels and seafood are very popular in a certain season, and a variety of shellfish seafood is an indispensable delicacy on the table of seafood lovers.
But this seafood that people have been eating for several years, but it has been exposed that the toxin exceeds the standard, and only 0.5 mg of deadly seafood can still be eaten?
Common seafood has excessive toxins?
Let people who love seafood not touch seafood, although there will often be such news, but the official reminder is indeed very important, which people should pay attention to and need to pay attention to in their diet.
According to Guangming.com, in the seafood testing in Qinhuangdao City, it was found that the problem of paralytic shellfish toxins exceeded the standard, and the name Haihong, also known as mussels, mussels, mussels, etc., is one of the common seafood in people's lives.
This small and common seafood is mainly distributed in the Yellow Sea, Bohai Sea and East China Sea coasts, etc., such a widely distributed seafood category, but because of its commonness, people in many regions have been poisoned.
Just like because of the May Day holiday, the expansion of people's range of activities, there are more opportunities for dinner, but in Qinhuangdao, there are people who were poisoned by eating Haihong and died of ineffective rescue.
In fact, as early as 2017, more than 30 villagers in a county in Fujian Province suffered paralytic shellfish toxin poisoning due to the consumption of shellfish and seafood, which was also determined by epidemiologists at the time to be caused by red tide pollution in seawater.
In 2021, there were also patients with edible rainbow poisoning in Tangshan, one of whom died because of ineffective rescue, which was a small food, but it could kill people, which shows that its toxicity is still very great.
Some of these shellfish toxins attack quickly, and some will suddenly have a serious reaction after a period of time, but because of the toxicity, even if some are sent to the hospital in time, it is difficult to guarantee that they can completely escape.
In particular, this toxin will occur more often between April and October, and will be affected by high temperature weather, causing seaweed carrying paralytic shellfish toxins to begin to multiply and grow wildly, deepening through the layers of the food chain, causing human poisoning consequences.
The number of people who are poisoned by eating seafood is also increasing, and even people who are engaged in the breeding industry may also cause certain physical damage after eating a large amount of unknown toxins in seafood.
How can I prevent seafood poisoning?
In order to ensure people's dietary health and life safety, the state has also taken a series of measures to strengthen the monitoring and testing of seafood products to avoid seafood containing toxins from entering the market.
If seafood with excessive toxins is found during quality inspection, it will also issue early warnings to people through various channels to remind some people who like to eat seafood not to catch and eat unsafe food.
As for the supervision of various seafood markets, inspections and spot checks are also adopted, and penalties and severe crackdowns will be imposed on those who do not listen to advice or sell seafood with excessive toxins in violation of regulations.
Only by operating in strict accordance with food safety regulations and not purchasing and processing seafood with toxins exceeding the standard value can we better protect people's lives.
In addition, through the Internet and other publicity and education methods, people will be informed of the dangers of seafood with excessive toxins, and how to better prevent food poisoning, etc., on the one hand, so that people can improve their awareness of self-protection, not eat everything casually, and on the other hand, they can also avoid causing social chaos.
If people want to eat safe food, then there are many things that need to be paid attention to, according to Guangming.com, if you want to better prevent paralytic shellfish toxins in seafood, people should make some preparations and protective behaviors.
If people really want to eat shellfish such as mussels, they should avoid buying shellfish as much as possible, or go to areas with red tides to produce shellfish, especially in April or May, which is the peak of red tide outbreaks.
For the sake of your own health, try not to harvest and buy wild shellfish food, because those are not guaranteed, and there is a high risk of unknown physical injury.
Of course, this does not mean that all shellfish and seafood products cannot be eaten, and if they are shellfish from regular channels, they can also be processed and eaten after a certain amount of processing.
Just like people in large supermarkets or farmers' markets, they are generally managed and inspected by relevant departments before entering the market, which may be artificially raised, or seafood that does not exceed the toxin standard in the re-inspection.
And when you really want to buy, you can also pay more attention to observe whether the seafood has any peculiar smell, discoloration or deterioration in terms of appearance or smell, even if you live by the sea or often deal with seafood, don't take it lightly.
In addition, when handling and cooking seafood, it is also necessary to pay attention to the fact that before cooking seafood, the seafood should be thoroughly cleaned to remove impurities such as internal organs and sediment, and do not be afraid of washing it several times.
Because most seafood shellfish, etc., there is no difference just from the appearance, and some shellfish that are attacked by paralytic toxins are different from normal shellfish, and it does not mean that it is not visible to the naked eye.
Therefore, if you do a good job of protecting yourself and wash more, it will not make people feel that the seafood is not delicious or not eaten, after all, people's life safety is also more important in front of food.
In the process of cooking, it is also necessary to pay attention to the appropriate cooking method and time to better ensure that the seafood is cooked thoroughly, generally speaking, with high temperature, it can kill most bacteria and viruses.
However, for paralytic shellfish toxins, etc., the effect may not be good, this toxin will have good heat resistance, so it can not be completely eliminated by cooking, especially the toxin that exceeds the standard, it will be more difficult to remove the harm to people.
Sometimes people after repeated rinsing, or after high temperature treatment, it may not be possible to ensure that the treated seafood is completely fine, people eat meat and eat meat, and the seemingly delicious soup is still not drunk.
In particular, the paralytic toxin in seafood is still a water-soluble toxin, which will enter the soup with the cooking process, and seafood is already a high-purine food, and the content in the soup will be higher.
And there is also to pay attention to the balance and variety of diet, sometimes people will think that a certain kind of seafood is delicious, will be inseparable from every day or meal, so in the long run, it will also cause adverse effects on the body.
Therefore, people eat more vegetables, fruits, grains, etc. in a balanced and diversified diet environment, not to mention the nutrition, but also because of the comprehensive energy intake, so as to improve the body's immunity and resistance.
What other seafood also contains toxins?
The snail in seafood will also be called sea snail, sea lion snail, wheat snail or white snail, etc., and is mainly distributed in some coastal areas such as Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong in China, because the appearance is similar to ordinary snails, so it is easy to be misidentified.
Compared to ordinary snails, the texture snail is slightly smaller, usually only a few centimeters in length, and its shell will also appear conical, and the color is mostly brown or yellowish-brown, and the surface also has a spiral texture, which can be used to distinguish it.
In fact, the snail itself is not poisonous, but when it feeds on algae, it will be affected by the algae, producing a substance called "paralytic shellfish toxin", which accumulates in the snail's body.
If humans eat a large amount of toxins in the body, when the toxins accumulate to a certain point, they will produce excessive toxins, which will lead to the consequences of poisoning.
With the development of industrialization and urbanization, a large amount of sewage, waste water and waste residue are discharged into the ocean, resulting in serious pollution of the marine environment, and aquatic animals and plants will also be affected and polluted in the process.
Marine pollution
Those pollutants in the ocean will contain a large amount of heavy metals, organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients, which will provide rich nutrients for the growth of algae, but also cause algae to bloom irregularly.
Some algae produce paralytic shellfish toxins under specific environmental conditions, and with climate change, ocean acidification and other factors, some algae can carry toxins that are harmful to humans.
And the sea carrying toxins, algae are eaten by aquatic organisms, and then through the food chain by human ingestion, then the last to be harmed, only human beings themselves, according to Guangming Network news, the shortest incubation period of the weave snail is 5 minutes, and the longest can reach 4 hours.
Although there was an announcement as early as 2012 that the procurement and processing and sales of snails were not allowed, there would still be people who could not resist the temptation to risk processing and selling.
In addition to the seafood such as the whelk, such as the puffer fish, it is also a highly poisonous seafood, although it has evolved to be inedible, but there are still some people who will love that bite of deliciousness.
red tide
Many parts of the body of puffer fish contain a substance called pufferfish toxin, which is also a very toxic substance, and its degree of harm is no less than that of other viruses.
According to China Economic Net, the mainland is now prohibiting the illegal fishing, trading and consumption of pufferfish, but it is inevitable that there will be people who are closed to the news or cannot resist the temptation.
However, although seafood is delicious, there are still certain risks for human consumption, and while enjoying the deliciousness of seafood, it is also necessary to pay attention to food safety to avoid suffering from sins and troubles because of eating seafood with excessive toxins.
Of course, people should pay more attention to the protection of the marine environment, and more people need to reduce the emission of pollutants, so as to provide a good living environment for marine life and a safer love for human beings.
In this era full of challenges and opportunities, food safety has always been the focus of people's attention, we can't ignore health and safety because of the pursuit of deliciousness, protect our own table, let food and health go hand in hand, wouldn't it be better?
Reference Links
Guangming Network - "Official Urgent Reminder: Don't Buy or Eat This Seafood in the Near Future!" Toxins have been found to be exceeded! 》2024-05-24, "Emergency Spread! This type of seafood was found to have excessive toxins! Fujian people often eat"2024-05-24, "The shortest incubation period is 5 minutes! Eating 1 can be fatal"2024-05-01
China Economic Net - "Strictly Forbidden to Buy Edible Pufferfish"2024-03-26