RE: "FOOD WITHOUT FEAR" [FW]

["Neil, David M" <neildm@id.doe.gov>]

The issue is not the actual organisms in many cases, but the ..err...

byproducts they leave behind, which are not degraded by cooking.  As an

example, Clostridium botulinum is actually a common soil organism.  The

apple I ate a few minutes ago probably had lots of them on it. However,

because they were in the open air, exposed to oxygen, this is not any

problem; pH 1 stomach acid is lethal to them.  On the other hand, if that

apple had been canned, and not heated enough to eliminate the C. botulinum,

they would have proceeded to multiply anaerobically and produced a truly

nasty toxin as a byproduct.  Even if the apple was recooked, the toxin would

remain.  



This has had side effects due to other factors.  Your great grandmother

could can tomatoes by what is known as the "cold pack" process and the acid

in the fruit would do in the C. botulinum quite effectively.  Then the

botanists bred sweeter, low acid, tomatoes in response to popular demand ...

There were a number of incidents because no one told Granny...



Another nonlethal similar example is fermentation.  Yeast growing

aerobically produce CO2 and make bread rise.  The same yeast growing

anaerobically produce ethanol in wine, beer, or the corn mash that goes into

a still. :-)  

Stipulated: brewers and vintners use a different species of yeast for

reasons of flavor.



The primary concern with sashimi (N.B. raw seafood is sashimi; sushi is

vinegared rice with toppings which may or may not be raw or fish.) is

parasites which could be passed to humans.  A well run restaurant maintains

their fish and serving facilities carefully to minimize the chance of

bacterial problems.  To address the parasites, all fish that is served raw

has been frozen previously.  This is also why none of the raw fish is

usually from freshwater; there is more chance of parasite compatibility.



This is far off topic now so if anyone has questions, send them off the

list.



Dave Neil



-----Original Message-----

From: J. Marshall Reber [mailto:reber@attbi.com]

************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.

You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/