A Meal Deadlier Than Cyanide

Malaysia Star ^

[nickcarraway]

yUM

[Red Badger]

A Meal Deadlier Than Cyanide?

Taco Bell?..................

[nickcarraway]

Chipotle

[dfwgator]

[GraceG]

[ A Meal Deadlier Than Cyanide?

Taco Bell?.................. ]

Taco bell is not just deadly tot he person eating it, but to the people around them as well as noxious fumes can kill from a distance...

[dfwgator]

Tofu?

[KC_Lion]

Taco Bell?

[SamAdams76]

Looking at the pictures in the article, that is a huge amount of pufferfish entering the market.

Seems to me we should be hearing about scores of deaths. But I'm not hearing about it. In fact, I did a web search and on an annual basis, between zero and six people die from pufferfish poisoning each year.

So it does seem like by and large, this fish is being handled and prepared properly.

[KC_Lion]

[Pearls Before Swine]

Taco bell is not just deadly tot he person eating it, but to the people around them ...

You're not talking toxicity, you're talking blast radius, LOL.

[dhs12345]

“However, despite the low toxicity level, there are still reports of people getting mild neurotoxin poiso­ning after eating the fish.”

So.... don't eat the fish!

[Red Badger]

We don’t have any of those near here......................thankfully..............

[Ciaphas Cain]

There has been some success lately in cultivating the fish in farms, with the bacteria removed entirely. Like the article states it’s not the puffer fish themselves, but the gut fauna excreting the poison as a waste material. It may be possible sooner than later to purchase fugu 100% free of toxin, and at a cheaper price.

[GraceG]

Oh snap....

Looks like a snow cone exploded....

Or someone’s internal organs...

[pax_et_bonum]

Whew.

I thought the fire department had reported my cooking.

[jonathonandjennifer]

Good Columbo episode about someone using puffer fish as a murder weapon.

[Gadsden1st]

Used to make Zombies in Haiti.

[Pontiac]

So it does seem like by and large, this fish is being handled and prepared properly.

From the article it sounds like it is only being sold on the local markets in Malaysia.

It also sounds like this is a fairly new practice so perhaps the statistics are behind.

In the US health statistics usually run a year or two behind. Deaths by this type of fish toxin poisoning may not even be kept.

[nickcarraway]

Yes, and French actor Louis Jordan was the killer. I think he was a restaurant reviewer. (No spoilers, because you know who the killer is from the beginning in Columbo)

[katana]

Ate it one time in a quality Japanese restaurant that specialized in serving "Fugu", live fish in the aquarium as you entered with a licensed chef working the kitchen, of course.

First to demonstrate that the fish was "fresh" they brought out all the parts, already cut up on a platter still twitching, that would then be taken back and sliced to be served as courses of sashimi. Then course by course, part by part, it came out. The flavor wasn't much different than any other mild raw fish. But after awhile my lips started to become noticeably numb.

It's that mild neurotoxin effect, supposedly the toxin that Voodoo priests in Haiti use to poison people, making them appear dead, and then dig up the "corpse" to work as an enslaved (literal) zombie. It's that danger of a bit too much of the toxin from the fish's liver being left in the flesh that attracts the diners. And it's why in Japan it's only supposed to prepared by specially trained and licensed chefs. But even there a few people die every year.

Like I said, one time in a licensed restaurant in Japan. Penang, Malaysia? Not on your life.