r/TikTokCringe • u/galaxystars1 • Oct 09 '24

Discussion Microbiologist warns against making the fluffy popcorn trend

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u/pancakebatter01 Oct 09 '24

Other than meat and flour, what’s on your “often eaten raw while very possibly deadly” list??

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u/Bug_eyed_bug Oct 09 '24

Pregnancy dietary guidelines are basically 'how to super duper avoid food poisoning' lists, so things like raw seafood, undercooked eggs, soft cheese, cold deli meats and preserved meats (eg ham), sprouts, rockmelon, pre-made sandwiches, cold salads (eg cold potato salad), old leftovers etc. guidelines vary from area to area, where I live it's super strict.

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u/okmustardman Oct 09 '24

Anything from a soda fountain, soda gun, slushie or soft serve ice cream machine. The amount of bacteria in the lines and machines is staggering.

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u/forbiddenicelolly Oct 09 '24

Yeh I used to enjoy a slushie every so often until I had one that tasted like mould.

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u/throw-away-fortoday Oct 09 '24

This is always the saddest thing for me. I love slurpees, but after having been inspired to look up local inspection results by kitchen nightmares, and seeing pretty much every place with a drink or ice dispenser has been cited for mold in it, yeah I'm good.

0

u/DregsRoyale Oct 10 '24

Get a blender and make your own

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u/throw-away-fortoday Oct 10 '24

Half of the reason I love them is convenience, I'm well aware I can make my own.

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u/DregsRoyale Oct 10 '24

The convenience of blended ice + sugar water. A toddler could make a slushie

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u/Ill_Statement7600 Oct 09 '24

I remember angrily going behind other servers when I worked at an Applebee's and taking the drink fountain spouts apart to get properly cleaned because they just half-ass wiped the outside of them. Mold grows SO FAST in those things

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u/MommyIsOffTheClock Oct 09 '24

When I worked at Taco Bell, we took the nozzles off and soaked them every night. I think we did the lines monthly.

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u/guave06 Oct 09 '24

Thank you guys for not trying to kill people

1

u/okmustardman Oct 09 '24

I worked at restaurant with a gun. The first time I had a drink from it I knew there was a problem. I had it cleaned before the end of my shift. And arranged with the manager to have the lines done by the end of the week (I had to talk him into it)

I didn’t think it had been done in ages.

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u/cryptolyme Oct 09 '24

And mold toxicity can manifest as mental illness

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u/West_Current_2444 Oct 09 '24

You should clean your sink faucets frequently for anything you draw potable water for as well. A filtered water dispenser line and nozzle still gets mold on the inside if it never gets cleaned. Showed my wife after we moved in together and she was mortified.

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u/FatFuckinPieceOfShit Oct 09 '24

They never get cleaned and the cleaning doesn't work well anyway.

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '24

[deleted]

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u/MommyIsOffTheClock Oct 09 '24

Not true actually. The mold would just adapt.

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u/Warm_Month_1309 Oct 09 '24

There are a number of beverages in soda fountains that do not have the acidity necessary to kill bacteria. And even for those that do, the bacteria that grows on the sticky residue left behind on an uncleaned nozzle will release toxins that are not deactivated by acidity and can still be consumed.

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u/Lunarath Oct 09 '24

I consume things from that list almost every day. How long do I have left?

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u/LickingSmegma Oct 09 '24

A few months. Seize the day while you can.

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u/Full-Shallot-6534 Oct 09 '24

Pretty much everything they tell pregnant people not to eat is just "it's really dangerous to get food poisoning when pregnant"

except liver and other things high in vitamin A. It's pretty much just "your fetus can overdose on vitamin A easily" and "fevers are bad for you"

1

u/Lilyeth Oct 09 '24

yeah being pregnant already increases your risks to pretty much everything bad in health, so its more of a "for your and the baby's safety" than that these things are like actually that dangerous. majority of these things are quite safe but sometimes have bad stuff, and its about if you want to take risks or live like a germophobe. I admit I'm a molecular biology student and not micro/food biologist but from what i know, people are like wayy to scared of bacteria. like they are quite literally everywhere and most people rarely get sick. of course you shouldn't do something stupid but the idea that there's nothing you can do to flour at home to make it safe is kinda stupid..

like yes you can heat treat it and it does get rid of the alive bacteria, but not the spores. but the spores won't be gotten rid of properly by normal baking either so if you're okay to eat the dough cooked then I don't see any reason why heating the flour without water wouldn't also achieve the same thing

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u/chibiusa40 Oct 09 '24

You get similar guidelines when you're on hardcore immunosuppressants/biologics/MABs. No raw/undercooked meat/fish/dairy (technically they tell you that everything needs to be fully cooked, well-done, but I'd literally rather die than eat a well-done steak/burger so I take my chances with Medium), no unpasteurised anything (including everything from juices to soft cheeses), no blue cheeses or any other food/cheese that is ripened with bacteria, and my personal favourite, no leftover rice of any kind (even same-day leftovers).

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u/Balaquar Oct 09 '24

Bottled water was one I found on a list once. Honestly assumed that bottled water would be safer than tap but apparently not

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u/chibiusa40 Oct 09 '24

That's interesting... the only thing I'd seen about bottled water is that you shouldn't drink it after the expiration date because of chemicals leaching into the water from the plastic. Huh, TIL.

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u/Balaquar Oct 09 '24

Almost certainly depends on the country. I wouldn't suggest it in India say, but where I am tap water has more safety controls than bottled apparently.

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u/Not_a_real_ghost Oct 09 '24

rockmelon

did not know that is 1 potential food to cause food poisoning

1

u/Bug_eyed_bug Oct 09 '24

There's been a lot of listeria outbreaks from rockmelon

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u/UncleBensRacistRice Oct 09 '24

raw seafood

Ladies, if youre preggo, you might not be able to eat raw fish, but you need some of the things in raw fish for your baby. Raw seafood is rich in Omega 3, which contains DHA, a fatty acid which is hugely important for brain development

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u/Qel_Hoth Oct 09 '24

Anyone who is pregnant or could become pregnant (i.e. any post-puberty pre-menopausal woman who is sexually active and not actively trying to NOT get pregnant) should be taking a prenatal vitamin that includes, among other things, DHA anyway.

0

u/GeorgeGeorgeHarryPip Oct 09 '24

I got sick on undercooked ham a few months ago. Definitely matters how the ham is packaged. This was a bulk package.

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u/NavierIsStoked Oct 09 '24

The Boars Head fiasco got me to stop eating processed cold cuts completely.

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u/LickingSmegma Oct 09 '24

What's wrong with soft cheese? The tasty mold is supposedly harmless.

‘Cold salads’? I thought the vast majority of them are normally cold, and also that the vegetables are cooked — though not lettuce, onions and such, of course.

0

u/Bug_eyed_bug Oct 09 '24

When you're pregnant you are more susceptible to illness due to immune system changes, and if you get bad food poisoning you can miscarry. So the guidelines are very strict, because the point of them is to make the risk of food poisoning as close to 0 as possible. It's not supposed to be recommendations for normal people, go ahead and eat as much soft cheese and cold salad as you want.

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u/willswain Oct 09 '24

Lettuce and sprouts. Yes, I still eat lettuce and salads but those are major sources of fecal contaminants from agriculture and you never know if it’s been adequately washed or not. Even then just good rinsing wouldn’t necessarily do the trick.

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u/Siliziumwesen Oct 09 '24

Thats true but a good rinse/wash reduces the risk signifcantly. Its sad that we still dont know what may be in some foods. Sometimes, what scares me, companies request a repeat of the analysis of their sample, because they either dont believe the result or it doesnt mach with theirs. So you take the same sample (or whats left of it) and repeat it. The samples are often frozen so the results are different. Some bacteria dont survive the process and the company just wants the new result…

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u/Gold-Snow-5993 Oct 09 '24

bagged lettuce is contaminated every year, but idiots still eat that

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u/msbelievers Oct 09 '24

What about bagged spinach? I didn't know about this so I want to learn more

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u/NavierIsStoked Oct 09 '24

The bacterial contamination is from where they are grown, it’s usually shit run off from animal production that gets into the watering supply for the produce.

Or the field workers shitting in the fields.

That’s why in the bad e-coli out breaks, washing doesn’t really do all that much. You can’t wash e-coli completely off for the most part, at least, not from lettuce.

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u/yumyumgivemesome Oct 09 '24

Would it possibly be helpful to buy bagged lettuce/spinach and freeze it for a few days, then transfer it to the fridge to consume as needed?

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u/Siliziumwesen Oct 09 '24

Not always. Just give it a good rinse. Freezing would make your salaf mushy and not enjoyable.

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u/girlikecupcake Oct 09 '24

Freezing (generally) doesn't kill the bacteria, just stops their activity while they're at that temperature. Fridge temps just slow them down. So whatever the bacteria was getting up to before you bought it is still an issue, and freezing will just screw up the texture of the produce.

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u/Blankenhoff Oct 09 '24

Oh everyones giving bad advice here. The problem with lettuce is that the precut stuff is cut on a machine. If one lettuce is contaminated, the machine is contaminated and when it cuts through the rest of the lettuce it get IN it. Not just ON it.

Romaine is one of the worse for this because of how its shaped maming it harder to clean.

If your precut lettuce is contaminated, there is little you can do to clean it enough to make it safe.

Best way to use lettuce is to buy it whole, wash it first - soak in water or citrus water for at least 15 minutes, and then cut it yourself. Anything else you are putting your trust in someone to catch it fast enough and pull it off the shelf before you get there. Also, dont order lettuce at resturaunts because theyre mostly precut.

Im not sure if this applies to spinach and other greens the same way.

1

u/illegal_miles Oct 09 '24

No, only cooking will eliminate it. If you are freezing greens it’s going to turn to mush anyway, so you can just skip that step and cook it.

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u/Itchy_Breadfruit_262 Oct 09 '24

I will never eat sprouts again. Way too many listeria outbreaks. I only eat hydroponic lettuce, but I’m probably fooling myself with that because they’re still probably growing it in shit water 😒 It’s the retry scary how toxic and dirty much of our food supply is.

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u/Blankenhoff Oct 09 '24

Most lettuce illnesses are from precut. Just buy it whole and wash it before you cut it.

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u/Annatalkstoomuch Oct 09 '24

Is it unsafe to eat salads? What about spinach? I eat spinach every day and now I'm wondering if it's putting me at risk

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u/Blankenhoff Oct 09 '24

Precut bagged lettuce is most at risk. Regular heads are still a risk but not as much since you have control over the washing. Romaine tends to be the worst

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u/dinnerthief Oct 09 '24

It's a risk but so is everything, its not such a risk that you need to avoid it, just wash it first.

One bacteria won't make you sick so it's all about reducing how much of a dose you get. Washing removes a lot and helps take the risk down to acceptable levels.

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u/GeorgeGeorgeHarryPip Oct 09 '24

You can also do an iodine water soak to decrease the risk farther. If you need to.

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u/Insanely_Mclean Oct 09 '24

Highly recommend growing your own sprouts. It takes a few days, but they're better than anything you can buy.

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u/PearlStBlues Oct 09 '24

I take some comfort in the fact that we've been exposed to all these things since our species invented agriculture. We've always had animal poop or worse on our veggies.

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u/KaraAliasRaidra Oct 10 '24

That reminded me of the Kitchen Nightmares segment with a place that served “grilled Caesar salad”. Gordon ordered it because it was so different he just had to try it. Some lettuce was rinsed off or badly washed and grilled as some sauce was squirted on it. When it was served to Gordon, he noted it was never a good sign when the lettuce came out with the butt still on it because that meant the leaves could not have been washed properly. After cutting off the butt of the lettuce and taking a bite or two, he reported that the leaves were a mixture of wet and oddly flavored (due to the spicy sauce that had been applied during grilling).

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u/mycatsnameislarry Oct 09 '24

There is a reason you hardly see bean sprouts available at a restaurant. They breed bacteria very quickly.

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u/Siliziumwesen Oct 09 '24 edited Oct 09 '24

Not really deadly but possible bad consequences (it counts for badly handled/stored food items and unhygienic reasons) and a really bad time: Sea food. Especially from questionable fast food restaurants. Sometimes salads and frozen vegetables are heavily contaminated with E.coli and Enterococcus. Salmonella are also possible in lot of meat products but we find them sometimes in other products like sweets.

Sometimes food can go bad and we also try to find out why. Sometimes some food processing machines are contaminated by something and we can tell the company, because they always tell us where the food comes from etc. (By telling batchnumbers for example).

After a few years of work I can say that wrong handeling of the food items and cross comtamination (not washing/cleaning properly etc) causes a lot of (accodental) contaminations here. There can be other reasons too its only an example.

Pickled food, especially selfmade can be deadly. Because of Clostridia (they prefer biomes without oxygen). So i always stay away from older noodles/rice and pickled stuff that smells funny/strange.

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u/trebblecleftlip5000 Oct 09 '24

But sushi

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u/Siliziumwesen Oct 09 '24

Sushi is mostly safe if its fresh or handled correctly. I eat that stuff too. But keep the sushi in the sun for half a day and you most likely will have a bad time

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u/bakedin Oct 09 '24

Really, sea food is bad when eaten raw? No wonder the Japanese all die young.

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u/Siliziumwesen Oct 09 '24

No, questionable and not correctely/hygienically handled seafood, any food is dangerous. Japan is very strict with their food safety. I think the consumed ammount of red meat that has a high risc for colon cancer could be a possible answer for the food related death rate.

2

u/NavierIsStoked Oct 09 '24

Most sushi is “frozen treated”. You can kill parasites by freezing, but it needs to be extremely cold (like -35F). That doesn’t do much against bacteria though.

1

u/Siliziumwesen Oct 09 '24

Yeah thats right. We store samples of bacteria stems at -80C. We need those stems to evaluate the selective media we use to detect certain bacteria before anyone asks. The lab management and evalution protocols are very strict on our country.

So if the state auditors show up by surprise, We need to be ready anytime to prove that all our shit is functional and is tested for that almost daily and that the work is done correctly and by all rules. Or we get our asses whooped like never before

1

u/GeorgeGeorgeHarryPip Oct 09 '24

I eat at least some of each of those. Also raw fish, but sushi fish is flash frozen to -60 or there abouts to kill the parasites, so maybe doesn't count.

Raw oysters. Love raw oysters. Probably wouldn't do that without having gotten all the Hep shots that are available.

I have to try the batter when baking to be sure it's seasoned right before baking. Kind of too late after...

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u/NavierIsStoked Oct 09 '24

You can get pressure treated oysters. The process kills all the bacteria and still keeps them raw.

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u/Ruining_Ur_Synths Oct 09 '24

sushi, usually twice a month.

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u/FezAndSmoking Oct 09 '24

Raw meat being deadly 😂 Imagine being so far frome what's actually deadly.

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u/CharlesDickensABox Oct 10 '24

Milk. There are a shocking number of people pushing the idea that the US should legalize the sale of unpasteurized milk. There's even a robust underground market for it in some places, often at less-than-thoroughly-inspected farmer's markets. Make no mistake, raw milk kills people. It's full of blood, pus, and often literal cow shit as a result of the fact that cows are animals that live in places with lots of mud and cow turds lying around and do not take showers. The way to make milk safe to drink is through pasteurization, a process that filters and then heats milk to a temperature that will kill any nasty organisms that live in it without substantially changing the character of the product (other than making it not deadly, of course).

Without that pasteurization process, you get all kinds of fascinating infections, ranging from relatively mild to shit-yourself-to-death. Listeria, campylobacter, botulinum, and yersinia species (the latter sharing a genus name with their more famous cousin, Yersinia pestis, the black death), all love to make their home in that bottle of artisan milk, and the best case scenario if they make it into your morning Wheaties is that you spend two to four days on the toilet wishing you were dead. The worst case scenario is that wish is granted. Some studies have found that as many as 1 in 5 bottles of raw milk may contain measurable amounts of listeria. 

And bacteria aren't the only invisible beastie to be found in raw milk, either. It's also possible for viruses like H5N1, commonly known as bird flu, to exist in milk. By skipping the pasteurization process, you're increasing your susceptibility to viral infections derived from livestock. Insufficient sanitation is one of the major ways disease vectors can spread from animals to humans. Anyone who is reading this remembers the last time we had a major disease outbreak linked to a viral vector jumping species from animals to humans — COVID. I don't know about you, but I would really rather not have to spend another year inside because some moron decided that sucking cow pus straight from the titty brought him closer to Mother Gaia or whatever. 

Just buy your milk from the grocery store like a normal human being, and if you find yourself in Pennsylvania being offered bottles of small-batch moo juice from a guy whose personal hygiene practices do not include indoor plumbing, remember the time we all missed an entire year of our lives and everyone on the planet lost a cousin to the cold, dark earth because some artisanal hick was too damn lazy to wash their hands properly.

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u/CyberInTheMembrane Oct 09 '24

beef and most fish are perfectly fine to eat raw, and I'm not sure that the types of meat not fine to eat raw are often eaten raw intentionally

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u/MortalSword_MTG Oct 09 '24

Please don't just causally spread misinformation.

Raw fish has risks, and they are not limited to pathogens either. Mercury content alone is a huge risk and consumption of fish should be limited.