It can cause diarrhea at the mildest and be fatal at the worst... An urgent reminder: Don’t eat it!

Recently, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Sanmen County, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, jointly with the Public Security Bureau of Sanmen County, successfully uncovered a number of major cases of illegal sales of spiral snails; more than 20 criminal suspects were arrested in Sanmen, Taizhou, Xiangshan, Ningbo and other places, and more than 800 kilograms of spiral snails were seized.

On July 6, the Food Safety Institute of Ningbo Center for Disease Control and Prevention reminded citizens who love to eat seafood and snails not to touch this kind of snail, as it could cause diarrhea at the mildest and be fatal at the worst.

The weaving snail is commonly known as the sea snail, sea snail, wheat snail or white snail. It is mainly distributed in coastal areas such as Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong.

Its appearance is characterized by a pointed and slender tail, which is about 1 cm long and 0.5 cm wide, about the size of a fingernail; the shell surface often has 1 to 3 purple-brown or reddish-yellow spiral bands, and the surface pattern looks like woven cloth; the mouth of the snail is white and the flesh is light yellow. It generally lives near offshore reefs and muddy bottoms.

The textured snail itself is non-toxic, but it is poisoned by eating toxic algae, enriching and accumulating algal toxins, or other toxic substances such as pufferfish toxin in its growth environment. The toxins it contains cannot be destroyed and decomposed by processing methods such as heating, salting, and exposure to the sun.

After consumption, poisoning symptoms such as dizziness, vomiting, and numbness of the lips and fingers may occur.

There is currently no specific antidote for poisoning caused by eating snails. The former Ministry of Health’s 2012 announcement (No. 13 of 2012) clearly requires that no food production and operation unit shall purchase, process and sell snails.

There is a certain incubation period for poisoning by the cone snail, which can be as short as a few minutes or as long as several hours.

Early symptoms include numbness of the lips, tongue, fingertips, and drooping eyelids.

Soon, gastrointestinal symptoms will appear, including stomach discomfort, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, thirst, and even bloody stools.

Those with severe poisoning will soon develop symptoms such as paralysis, slurred speech, hoarseness, cyanosis, and difficulty breathing.

Shock follows, and eventually death from respiratory failure. The entire disease progresses rapidly and can result in death within minutes.

What to do after food poisoning?

It is reported that there is no specific medicine for neurotoxins. Once poisoning occurs, only some common first aid methods can be used, including vomiting, gastric lavage, catharsis, diuresis, etc. to promote the excretion of toxins.

The Ningbo Center for Disease Control and Prevention reminds the public to raise their awareness of self-protection and not to buy or eat snails. If you experience symptoms similar to neurological poisoning such as numbness of the lips after accidentally eating snails, you should go to the hospital immediately.

If consumers find that food production and operation units purchase, process and sell cone snails, they should call 12345 to file a complaint in a timely manner.

Source: Ningbo CDC