(Author: Sun Xijuan, national first-class public nutritionist, reviewer: Wang Guoyi, postdoctoral fellow in nutrition and food safety of China Agricultural University, original works, reprint please indicate that knowledge is the power of WeChat public account)
(Image from the Internet)
Recently, the Fushou snail incident continued to ferment, and many netizens said that they may have eaten Fushou snail by mistake, and people were panicked for a while. Once upon a time, in the hot summer, it was so pleasant to have friends get together to eat the night market and talk about the delicious snails while tasting the delicacies of snails. Nowadays, behind these delicious but there may be hidden health risks, in addition to Fushou snail, this time Xiaobian to introduce you to another invisible killer - textured snail!
The current situation of the edible snail
Textured snail is one of the common snail species along the coast, also commonly known as wheat snail, white snail, cut snail, sea snail, because of its delicious taste, is everyone's favorite traditional seafood food.
Fried textured snails, the meat is tender and smooth to eat, slightly tendonic, silky and fragrant, and accompanied by a bottle of beer, which is a delicacy often eaten by many residents. However, in fact, many coastal areas have taken measures to completely ban the harvesting, sale and consumption of textured snails, and to monitor the textured snails in the sea.
However, there are still many people who can't resist the temptation of the delicious taste of the snail, and privately harvest the snail and eat it or sell it. Today, some restaurants still sell textured snails, which has become one of the hidden dangers of public food safety.
Why is it forbidden to eat textured snails?
The reason why snails cannot be eaten is mainly because they contain tetrodotoxin in their bodies. Tetrodotoxin is named for its isolation from puffer fish, mainly found in puffer fish, textured snails and other marine organisms.
Although the snail itself does not produce tetrodotoxin, but due to the presence of a large number of marine bacteria, once the snail swallows a large number of these marine bacteria, it will form a powerful tetrodotoxin in the body, although the high resistance of the snail makes itself immune to toxins, but these toxins will accumulate in its body, once people accidentally eat, it may cause harm.
What are the hazards of eating toxic snails?
Tetrodotoxin blocks the conduction of nerve impulses, paralyzing nerve endings and central nervous systems.
In patients with edible snail poisoning, early manifestations are tingling of the lips, tongue, and fingertips, and drooping eyelids. Digestive tract symptoms can occur soon, mainly stomach discomfort, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea, thirst, and then the appearance of lips, tongue tip and limb numbness, limb weakness or muscle paralysis and other neurological symptoms. Severe patients develop paralysis, slurred speech, hoarseness, cyanosis, dyspnea, confusion, shock, and finally death from respiratory and circulatory failure.
Therefore, although "gentlemen feast on food", the pursuit of food can be said to be an innate instinct of people, but if it is a food that will endanger health, even if it is delicious, everyone must stay away.
Editor: Hu Xiaoyu