One emergency department doctor has revealed the top three culprits for food poisoning and spoiler alert, you’ll likely find them hard to part with.
Have you ever eaten some dodgy takeaway or tested the validity of ‘use by’ suggestions? If so, you’ve probably experienced a treacherous evening in hell, swearing off a particular meal indefinitely. Now imagine witnessing the cycle of food poisoning day in and day out.
After treating thousands of patients for terrible bouts of food poisoning, An ER doctor and trauma surgeon has divulged the most common foods associated with food poisoning cases, advising people to avoid them at all costs.
Dr Gabe, another TikTok doctor putting his 12 years of medical training to good use, has racked up over 64 thousand followers on the platform, sharing helpful tips and explanations relating to a myriad of health conditions and commonly asked questions.
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These are the top three foods Dr Gabe would never put on his shopping list.
#1. Raw cookie dough
Before you shed a tear for your favourite ice cream flavour, Dr Gabe insists raw cookie dough in this form is usually safe, as the eggs are pasteurised and the flour has been heat-treated. Instead, the cookie dough you should be wary of is your homemade or store-bought batch.
“Buying a raw batch that needs to be baked first is a big no-no,” he says. “Raw flour could contain E-coli and should always be cooked.”
#2. Unpasteurised dairy products
Situated in the United States, Dr Gabe is understandably seeing a higher prevalence of unpasteurised dairy product-related hospital admissions. Many states in the US still allow the production and distribution of unpasteurised milk and cheese.
“I’m not sure why this has been an emerging trend recently, but consuming foods made with raw unpasteurised milk like cheese puts you at risk for salmonella or E-coli poisoning,” says Dr Gabe, acknowledging the rise of controversial food trends on the very dame platform he preaches health advice from.
Here in Australia, Food Standards Australia New Zealand have been notoriously strict about such products until December last year, when amendments to regulations were made to allow local production and sale of raw milk products.
#3. Raw oysters
Bad news for those of us who have been hanging out for a summer Aperol sprits and ice cold plate of a dozen Sydney rock oysters. Despite acknowledging he might make a few people unhappy by saying so, the physician says these salt-water molluscs are the number one food he has learnt to avoid after a career in the emergency department.
“Oysters are considered filter feeders which live in coastal or brackish waters, meaning they absorb a lot of harmful bugs from their environment,” the doctor explains.
“Those nasty bugs, Vibrio, could lead to some serious food poisoning,” he adds. “I personally would only eat oysters if they were fully cooked.”
As more potentially harmful products gradually surface on the market, it’s probably a wise idea to follow Dr Gabe’s advice and steer clear, or you could easily end up in the emergency department feeling less than fresh.