Introduction: We cannot see parasites with the naked eye, so they often hide in food and enter our bodies to cause disease. Therefore, for food safety, it is crucial to be aware of foods that can easily harbor parasites. The following foods are particularly susceptible to harboring them.
1. Sprouts
Sprouts are traditional indoor-grown vegetables. Due to their rich nutrition and crisp, delicious texture, they are highly favored. However, the environment in which sprouts grow is most conducive to the proliferation of harmful bacteria. If the raw materials and equipment used for sprout production are not strictly disinfected, a large number of harmful bacteria can breed.
2. Sushi
The main issues with sushi are parasites, flatworms, and roundworms, such as those found in raw fish. Although raw fish cannot be guaranteed to be safe, dipping sauce or wasabi might have a slight antibacterial effect.
Homemade Sushi
3. Eggs
Raw and soft-boiled eggs have uncooked yolks, which can be potentially dangerous. For safety, it's best to eat eggs that are cooked more thoroughly or are fully set. High temperatures will kill any bacteria that may be present, so you can safely eat hard-boiled or fully fried eggs.
4. Crayfish
Because crayfish often inhabit waters with poor quality, their bodies frequently contain lung flukes. If a person eats raw or undercooked crayfish, they are highly likely to become infected with lung flukes, leading to paragonimiasis. After infection, the lung flukes will parasitize the human lungs. In mild cases, patients may experience coughing, chest pain, and coughing up blood. In severe cases, it can cause massive pulmonary hemorrhage, organ obstruction, and even death.
Spicy Crayfish
5. Water Chestnuts
Autumn is the season for harvesting water chestnuts and water caltrops. When freshly picked, they are delicious and tender, making it hard to resist eating them raw. This is when one is highly likely to become infected with the fasciolopsis buski parasite, which lives on water chestnuts and water caltrops. This parasite resides in the human small intestine and can cause digestive and systemic symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea. In severe cases, it can lead to anemia, edema, and developmental delays.
6. Saltwater Fish
A wide variety of saltwater fish are infected with Anisakis, including edible species like salmon, chum salmon, tuna, sea bass, cod, hairtail, conger eel, grouper, herring, and sea bream. Additionally, the cuttlefish, which is not a fish, is also one of the hosts for Anisakis. Inside the saltwater fish, the Anisakis develops into its third-stage larval form, which is infectious, and then enters the digestive system of a marine mammal when the fish is eaten. Compared to marine mammals, the final hosts, humans are not the ideal environment for Anisakis because the third-stage larvae cannot mature into adults in the human body. However, they can still cause harm to human health.
7. Snails
The larvae of rat lungworms develop for a long time in certain terrestrial or aquatic snails. Some people, wanting to eat them "fresh," simply blanch the snail meat in boiling water before consumption, unaware that eating raw or undercooked snail meat can lead to an infection with rat lungworms.
Spicy River Snails