Homemade pickles, raw pickled seafood, etc. are healthy and delicious? Homemade food has risks

Author: Wang Lu, Chinese registered dietitian, Master of Public Health, Peking University

Reviewer: Xue Qingxin, the first batch of nutrition instructors of the National Health Commission, China registered nutritionist

gossip

With the changes and sedimentation of the times, in addition to pursuing high-end material enjoyment, some of our friends have begun to explore the little happiness in life of "doing it yourself and having enough food and clothing".

For example, DIYing all kinds of food is one of their pleasures. Homemade pickles, fermented bean products, sauces, beverages, snacks, dried fruits, and wine are all things that friends who are keen on homemade food like to explore.

The finished products are not only enjoyed at home, but sometimes also brought to colleagues, relatives and friends, or sold on social platforms such as WeChat Moments. For friends who love homemade food, homemade food is healthy and delicious.

However, homemade food is not as exquisite and beautiful as we see in the pictures on WeChat Moments. If you do not pay attention to food hygiene issues when making homemade food, it may cause various food safety risks.

Today, let’s take stock of the risks of common homemade foods and how to make and eat homemade foods safely and healthily.

analyze

Homemade pickled/fermented foods

In traditional Chinese food culture, pickling/fermentation is an important way to extend the shelf life of food and preserve its flavor. In the era of food shortage, it solved the problem of food shortage in certain seasons. Nowadays, people no longer have to worry about food and clothing. Pickled and fermented foods are still popular on the Chinese table with their unique flavor, providing us with a variety of delicious foods.

The most common pickled foods that may be risky are homemade pickles and homemade cured meats.

The biggest problem with pickled vegetables is nitrite . Usually, leafy vegetables contain nitrite. If the pickling time is too short, reducing bacteria will make the nitrite in the leafy vegetables even higher. Eating a large amount of pickled vegetables at this time may cause nitrite poisoning , resulting in dangerous symptoms such as chest tightness, difficulty breathing, dizziness, palpitations, etc.

The safest approach is to eat pickled vegetables 14-21 days later, thus avoiding the peak of nitrite production. A better approach is to eat less or no pickled vegetables, and when you must eat them, rinse them several times with running water to allow the nitrite to dissolve in the water and be taken away.

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The risk of cured meats is contamination with botulism . Once the cured meat is contaminated by botulism, it will multiply in an anaerobic environment (such as a sealed cured meat tank) to produce botulinum toxin . This toxin is a dangerous neurotoxin that can cause death due to respiratory and heart failure in severe cases.

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In addition to pickled meat, botulism also likes to appear in fermented foods made from various soy products, such as sauces and stinky tofu. In the past few years, there have been reports of families in Northeast China being poisoned by eating homemade bean paste and fermented black beans. This year, there was also a case of a woman being poisoned by eating stinky tofu.

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To avoid botulism, on the one hand, you must pay attention to the hygiene of the production process when pickling and fermenting such foods; on the other hand, before eating such foods, you must fully heat and boil them for a certain time , such as more than 20 minutes, to ensure that the botulism toxin is killed.

In addition, pickled meat and fermented soy products should also be stored at low temperatures. Since low temperatures are not conducive to the reproduction of botulism bacteria, refrigerating them is a good choice.

Recently, it is popular to pickle all kinds of seafood , such as drunken shrimps and crabs. Usually, white wine and various seasonings are used to pickle uncooked shrimps and crabs in order to retain the freshest taste and the most complete nutrients.

However, uncooked shrimps and crabs are likely to contain parasites, pathogenic bacteria or viruses, and even with strong liquor, it is difficult to completely kill them. Moreover, the temperature and marinating time of homemade pickles are not accurate enough, and it is difficult to control the reproduction of bacteria and viruses. This is why there are often reports in the news about food poisoning caused by eating homemade pickles.

I would like to advise everyone to be cautious when consuming raw and pickled foods. If you really want to eat them, buy big brand products from regular supermarkets to ensure that there are no food safety risks.

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Homemade brewed water

Homemade brewed water was very popular in the past few years. However, the problem with homemade brewed water is that it is difficult to ensure sufficient fermentation due to the lack of professional guidance and regulation of temperature, humidity and time during the brewing process. Once the fermentation process is not done properly, a large amount of methanol is likely to be produced. Ingesting a large amount of homemade brewed water containing methanol may damage the central nervous system, cause blindness or even loss of life.

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In addition, due to the lack of strict selection of brewing ingredients, it is very likely that residual pesticides and heavy metals are introduced at the raw material stage, which is particularly common in homemade medicinal wine.

In order to avoid the above risks, we sincerely recommend that you do not try to make your own wine. If you want to drink alcohol, choose the finished products of regular brands. If you want to drink something with fruit flavor, you can choose fruit tea.

Homemade yogurt

Common risks of homemade yogurt due to improper processing may fall into two categories:

One is that failure to pay attention to hygiene during the production process causes the yogurt to be contaminated and multiplied by miscellaneous bacteria, which then causes gastrointestinal discomfort symptoms such as diarrhea after drinking.

One type is that homemade yogurt becomes spoiled due to being stored for too long (more than 3 days) or in improper storage conditions (not refrigerated).

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Therefore, when making homemade yogurt, you should not only choose pure milk with a fresh date, but also pay attention to the hygiene of hands and fermentation containers during the production process, and control the fermentation temperature between 40-45 degrees Celsius; the finished yogurt should be sealed in time, refrigerated, and eaten within 3 days as much as possible.

If you can remember to use a clean spoon every time you serve yogurt, you can better avoid bacterial contamination.

Self-pressed edible oil

Home-made cooking oil is popular among many people because it contains no additives, has genuine ingredients and is rich in flavor. However, this seemingly safe and healthy cooking oil hides terrible risks.

Since home-made edible oil cannot ensure the selection of raw materials, does not have a processing procedure to remove toxins, and is not supervised and restricted by relevant departments, once the raw materials (such as peanuts and other oil nuts) are contaminated with aflatoxin, the aflatoxin content in the squeezed oil may exceed the standard.

Long-term or frequent exposure to aflatoxin may cause serious liver damage or even liver cancer. Therefore, for home-pressed edible oil, the best practice is to refuse it directly without buying or eating it.

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If you want to eat oil in a healthy way, you can buy finished and small-packaged cooking oils, and mix various oils such as peanut oil, rapeseed oil, soybean oil, olive oil, tea seed oil, flaxseed oil, etc. to obtain multiple types of fatty acids and maximize the health benefits.

We need to remind everyone that it is not recommended to buy or sell private homemade food on online social platforms.

On the one hand, due to the lack of relevant food safety laws and regulations, the health of the producer himself, the safety of the ingredients and processing process, and the quality of the finished product cannot be effectively guaranteed like pre-packaged foods sold in regular supermarkets.

On the other hand, selling bulk or pre-packaged food requires certain qualifications. Selling without the corresponding qualifications is illegal and may cause trouble for both the seller himself and the buyer.

in conclusion

Homemade food sounds safe and healthy, but in fact, it has great food safety risks. If the food ingredients are not properly selected, the production process lacks professional regulation, and the hygiene problem cannot be guaranteed, then homemade food is very likely to contain pathogenic bacteria and other microorganisms, which are harmful to human health. It is recommended that you do not buy or sell private homemade food, and try to choose food sold in regular supermarkets.

Source: Starry Sky Project

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