Six Foods that Make a Food Poisoning Expert Cringe

Food poisoning is a great issue in the U.S. since foodborne illnesses sicken more than 48 million people, get in the hospital more than 128,000, and kill around 3,000 every year. Fortunately, we now have a list with six foods that make a food poisoning expert cringe.

The list was provided by Bill Marler, an attorney that has an extensive expertise in food poisoning cases. Though the official list of food items that may land you in a hospital is quite large, Marler, who is also a chief editor for the Food Poison Journal, managed to shrink it to its basics.

The food safety expert recently wrote that he would never eat six food items.

The first item on the list is raw milk. Mr. Marler explained that unpasteurized milk could lead to foodborne illnesses because it gets easily tainted by airborne bacteria, parasites and viruses. In slightly more than a decade, the U.S. saw 148 outbreaks caused by raw dairy products. The expert also noted that unpasteurized juice poses the same amount of risk as raw milk.

The second item on the list is raw sprouts, which has led to over 30 salmonella and E. Colli outbreaks in the last two decades. The risk is relatively high since few people ever consume them. Nevertheless, the sprouts are safe to eat if they are thoroughly cooked.

The third item on the list is undercooked meat. Marler cautions that everyone should make sure that their burgers are thoroughly cooked because ground meat has the highest risk of bacterial contamination. Undercooked meat can cause E. Colli or salmonella food poisoning.

Furthermore, you should be wary of locations that serve tenderized steaks, Marler cautions, because tenderizing tools can spread bugs deep within the muscle fibers. He recommends tenderized steaks to be well done. If steaks are not tenderized, medium-well is safe.

Marler also said that you should avoid precut fruits, precut salad boxes and other precut and prewashed fruits and veggies.

“I avoid these like the plague,”

he noted.

Although these product are very convenient since they save us a lot of time, buying unwashed whole fruits and vegetables is the safe way to go.

The fifth item on the list of hazardous foods is undercooked eggs, which can carry salmonella. Marler never eats raw or undercooked eggs and advises everyone to have them well-done.

And last but not least item is raw shellfish. Raw oysters in particular are behind most foodborne illnesses as of recently. Marler believes that warming waters from which oysters are harvested help bacteria and other pathogens thrive since the mollusks act as filter feeders.

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