The end of year holidays are an occasion for great meals, with seafood, poultry, artisanal preserves… So many dishes that will delight the palate but that can also carry bacteria, such as Campylobacter, Salmonella or even Escherichia coli, and that can cause food poisoning. The key to avoiding major stomach pains: take care of preparation, storage and knowing how to detect spoiled products before consuming them.
• Seafood
For starters, seafood dishes tend to be popular. Before swallowing an oyster, observation is essential: you have to make sure that it is tightly closed because “it must be alive when you eat it,” explains Professor Laurent Beaugerie, BFMTV gastroenterologist.
Once opened, to check that it is alive, you can “tickle” the little black collar inside by squeezing a splash of lemon juice or touching it with an oyster fork.
“If this collar moves, it means that it is alive and that we can go there,” explains the specialist, who wishes to ensure, however, that a “very effective health control” authorizes the consumption of the oysters that we find in the sea. stables. “If she doesn’t move, we move on to the next one.”
You also have to pay attention to the smell: a good oyster should smell like the sea, it should not smell bad.
As for mussels, it is worth observing their reaction when submerging them in water before boiling them.
“They have to submerge, if they float it is because they have been sick or because their shell has been pierced,” says Professor Laurent Beaugerie.
If mussels must be sealed before cooking, they should be opened or half-opened before consumption.
• Dishes made with raw eggs
The shrimp are usually accompanied by their batch of homemade mayonnaise, prepared with raw eggs. The risk? Salmonellosis contracted, which is especially virulent in children, pregnant women, the elderly or immunosuppressed people, for whom, therefore, its consumption is not recommended.
“Salmonella bacteria are found on the surface of the egg shell. Although there are controls, they are never 100% effective,” says the gastroenterologist. Therefore, we must ensure that this bacteria remains on the surface and does not enter the mayonnaise or chocolate mousse. To do this, you must break the eggs from the plate in which you are preparing your dish. “And once you break them, you have to wash your hands thoroughly before continuing to work,” he says.
• Raw fish
To prepare your gravlax or salmon tartare, it is possible to buy two types of fish: farmed fish, for which “there is no problem because the fish parasite does not reside in the farms”, or line fish, whose risk of “parasitosis “is low. higher.
“The frequency of parasitic infections has multiplied by 300 in the last 50 years because the whales that were part of the parasite chain are no longer hunted. Currently, almost one in two fish caught in the Atlantic is infected,” says Laurent Beaugerie.
Before reassuring: “this does not mean that we are going to catch this parasitosis again and again.”
To limit the risks, it is recommended to freeze fish for a week before preparing it for a raw dish.
• Poultry
If poultry is infected with a bacteria called campylobacter, there is a risk of contracting gastroenteritis. To avoid this, the chicken must be well cooked. If there is the presence of a “small pink liquid, much less blood”, it means that the cooking is not satisfactory and that, therefore, we must put the chicken back in the oven or microwave, “even if we buy it in a spit”. “
In particular, you have to look at the cracks between the carcass and the thighs: “this is especially where there are areas where cooking can be incomplete,” he adds.
• Red meat
For Professor Laurent Beaugerie, consuming cooked red meat carries few risks because the bacteria are on the surface and die when cooked. “Even a steak, when you eat it blue, has been in a double-sided pan to kill bacteria,” he says.
The risk: it is tartar. “The trick is that we will mix everything, so the bacteria that are in the live muscle of the meat will be incorporated everywhere,” he adds. As with raw egg products, ANSES does not recommend the consumption of meat tartare for young children, pregnant women, elderly people and immunosuppressed people.
• Artisan preserves
Although it remains rare, the risk of artisanal canning of meat or fish is contracting botulism, a potentially fatal disease, if poorly preserved. “Botulism is a serious neurological disease caused by a very powerful toxin that develops especially in poorly preserved foods,” explains the Ministry of Health in a press release. It is more precisely botulinum toxin, secreted by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum responsible for the disease.
To avoid risks, the sterilization time must be respected. “It has to last several hours, with closed, airtight jars, those with a small circle and rubber, I insist, we boil them for hours and hours,” Robert Sebbag, an infectious disease specialist at Pitié-Salpétrière, explained to BFMTV.com. hospital in Paris, last September.
These foods must also be boiled at 130 degrees, according to Professor Laurent Beaugerie, or use an autoclave, a device that works with boiling water vapor.
The gastroenterologist also advises paying attention to the smell: “if it smells bad, you should definitely not consume it.”
Source: BFM TV
