It is said that love and food cannot be failed, and crayfish seems to have become a delicious food in the hot summer. However, there are various doubts about whether crayfish can be eaten. Dr. Clove will answer a series of questions about crayfish today.
Is crayfish shrimp or worm?
The crayfish is a crustacean called Procambarus clarkii, It is a kind of food similar to the freshwater shrimp we usually eat. Crayfish has been reported fiercely before: rumors say that it grows in dirty environment such as gutters and carries a large number of parasites and heavy metals, and even some say that crayfish was originally brought in from Japan [for decontamination]. The Japanese do not eat it, only the Chinese eat this kind of crayfish.
What are the public’s worries about crayfish?
The fact is not as scary as rumors say: crayfish is not a Japanese conspiracy, not only the Chinese eat it, this delicious food is eaten all over the world, and China already has crayfish, and there are different varieties all over the world.
Crayfish are indeed highly adaptable to the environment, and they can survive even in heavily polluted environments. However, in order to increase production, artificially cultured crayfish are now generally in clean waters.
In addition, the shell is the gathering place of heavy metals, which will decrease with shelling during the growth of crayfish.
Aquatic organisms such as screws, shellfish, fish, water chestnuts, bullfrogs, etc. may carry parasites. If you want to enjoy these delicious foods safely, you must cook them thoroughly and never move chopsticks half-baked.
The Real Safety Hazard of Crayfish
It is not difficult to see newspaper reports or listen to colleagues saying that yesterday so-and-so pulled, vomited and had a fever after eating crayfish at the food stall. In serious cases, he even had to go to the hospital. So is it what that makes it so easy to eat crayfish?
We are prone to diarrhea when eating crayfish. The main reason is that the crayfish is not thoroughly cooked and the bacteria are not completely killed in the processing process. Perhaps it is to ensure the delicious taste, [the meat is not old] and other reasons. The crayfish is not cooked for enough time and is not thoroughly cooked.
The head of crayfish is large and the tail is small. The meat of the shrimp body is old, but the head of the shrimp may not be ripe. Moreover, the head of the shrimp is more likely to hide dirt and carry various pathogenic bacteria.
Therefore, if you eat crayfish that is not properly processed, a large number of bacteria will be ingested, which will naturally lead to diarrhea.
Summer is a hot selling season for crayfish. The temperature is relatively high in summer, and crayfish is easy to deteriorate after death. Some vendors may continue to sell stale or deteriorated crayfish. It is not advisable to try to ensure hygiene by thoroughly cooking stale crayfish, because even if bacteria are boiled to death, toxins produced by bacterial metabolism cannot be boiled away.
Although high temperature can kill bacteria, the toxins produced by bacteria are still in the process of crayfish spoiling, and ordinary heating cannot degrade the toxins. For example, common Staphylococcus aureus can be killed in a few minutes at 100 ℃, but the enterotoxin produced by it has strong heat resistance and can still maintain its virulence after boiling for several hours.
During the process of crayfish spoiling, various bacteria will reproduce and produce various toxins. Therefore, after eating stale crayfish, not all of them are diarrhea caused by bacteria, but more of them are diarrhea caused by bacterial toxins.
If unfortunately you eat stale crayfish and it is not ripe enough and the bacteria are not completely killed, then the bacteria and toxins are ingested together, which is extremely easy to cause acute gastroenteritis and even food poisoning.
The oil or ingredients used in some street food stalls will also have problems. They may use illegal cooking oil or stale ingredients, plus unclean tableware and dirty and messy eating environment. These are the reasons why eating their crayfish is more likely to lead to diarrhea.
Food stalls often fry stale crayfish with oil and season them with various seasonings, which are spicy and heavy in taste and cover up their peculiar smell. Moreover, eating food with too much spicy and too much seasoning is also easy to stimulate the intestines and stomach.
How to eat crayfish well?
Knowing the cause of diarrhea after eating crayfish, one can better eat it at ease.
The first is to select materials to ensure that crayfish comes from a regular, fresh and clean route. If you go to a restaurant to eat, you should also try to choose some trustworthy merchants. Secondly, after buying live crayfish, it is best to keep it in clear water for 24-36 hours to make it spit out the silt and other impurities in the body.
Compared with ordinary shrimps and crabs, the abdomen and head of crayfish are especially easy to hide dirt but difficult to clean. In fact, the most headache link in processing crayfish in restaurants is cleaning, so that some small business vendors have used unknown chemical products such as [shrimp washing powder] to clean crayfish before.
When processing lobsters, Shrimp shells are best scrubbed with a brush, And the gills are to be removed, Because there are many bacteria adsorbed in the gill hair, it is not necessarily possible to be cooked thoroughly in the pan. The root of crayfish’s fine claws is the most easy to hide dirt and accept dirt, and it is difficult to clean, so it is best to cut it off. In addition, the dirt on its body should be washed with a brush, and the intestinal line that hides a large amount of silt and bacteria must also be removed, and then thoroughly cleaned with clear water for 2-3 times.
The head of crayfish is the place where toxins are absorbed and processed most, and it is also the part where pathogenic bacteria and parasites are most easily accumulated. Therefore, in order to eat healthily, do not eat the head of crayfish, and it is better to remove the head of crayfish before cooking, so it is easier to cook and ensure clean and hygienic eating.
Responsible Editor: Ji Lingyan