Thai Ministry of Health warns: Eating fried insects can kill!
The Ministry of Health warns Thais and foreigners against eating fried/fried insects.
Dr Aphichat Mongkol, director general of the Department of Medical Sciences, warns in particular about the high dose of histamine that you ingest when you eat (contaminated) insects. For people with a histamine allergy, this can be very dangerous and even fatal.
Histamine is normally found in a variety of foods, but high doses are found in foods high in protein or contaminated by bacteria.
In general, the human body is able to process low levels of histamine – usually around 100-200 mg/kg though. However, eating contaminated food can cause an excessively high level of histamine, which can lead to an acute allergic reaction.
Symptoms of too much histamine in the body are: skin infection, rash, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. It can also make asthma worse. The symptoms vary from person to person and depend on histamine sensitivity and existing allergies.
The Department of Medical Sciences of the Thai Ministry of Health has therefore issued a warning to the general public. One should be careful about consuming fried insects available at street stalls and markets all over Thailand. Especially people who already suffer from allergies and / or asthma.
If you still want to eat insects, you are advised to only eat the well-known species in small quantities and preferably from a reliable supplier.
Source: NNT – National News Bureau of Thailand
And now the 1000 euro question. What are the known types that you can eat? What an information from this ministry.
Indeed, what choice should you make, grasshoppers big or small, hard or soft fried, the mealworms, those big spiders. or maybe those wasps that they bake like pancakes oh yes you also have those ants that eat the thai.
Histamine occurs in more products in larger quantities, e.g. in beer and fish, so I think that will be better than expected.
Rather wonder how much poison you ingest and how harmful that is.
Still haven't figured out how they kill those critters, maybe one of the readers knows.
I once heard a cry with DDT. but surely not,…….. right??
You can be stubborn or believe in it. Give me the latter, because prevention is better than cure. However
I think it's ok for Westerners. At most we grab an insect to try. The amount of histamine you ingest is negligible.
It only becomes really dangerous if you eat large amounts or regularly of insects.
Don't you have to live with a Thai or more Isan, they will go in a cup on the table, just like chippies, when you start…555
At my wife's village in the I-San, the insects (grasshoppers, crickets, etc.) are caught with neon light, after which they fall into a container of water, and thus die. So far no problem with these "snacks" I would say. Have more problems with the oil used for deep-frying, which is often not changed in time, and thus after some time more like oil from the Middle East, with the same taste sensation.
That seems to me many times more dangerous to health than the amount of histamine, although I am a layman in that area.
Sometimes eat these snacks yourself, on holiday with the in-laws, but the only thing that is really "clean" are the red ants, fished out of the tree myself, and processed by the in-law in a fresh and sour salad, great as a snack, even if it is it takes some getting used to, yes.
That's right with that oil, you also see too often on the markets with other stuff, but those locusts on the market are farmed locusts and I don't think they will make it in a cup of water.
By the way, find them quite tasty if you have the right ones, like nuts but with legs 5555.
@hans,
Crazy.
Really don't think about this.
The shivers are already running down my spine and we are people who try everything, only a big fat line is drawn under insects,
For those who like them, bon appetit.
LOUISE
Hi. Louise, do you know that when you swat a fly, some kind of pus comes out of the body.
They also fry because of those big spiders, you have to squeeze that abdomen and then all that kind of pus comes out. Tried that too and liked it.
When my girlfriend started pulling off the legs and stuff and nibbling on them, I also turned around and moved a few meters away from her.
In 2012 I visited Thailand for the first time in my life and it was a wonderful experience. My curiosity was also aroused when I saw fried insects on the market and I couldn't resist the temptation to taste three kinds. Mind at zero and sight at infinity. I have to admit that the beetles, worms and crickets weren't too bad for me, because the stuff was perfectly comparable to prawn crackers or spicy chips.
My Thai hostess was not so enthusiastic and she also warned me to only test small amounts because we can never be sure that these insects were not killed with some kind of insecticide and then sold as a fried delicacy …..
All in all it was a nice experience for me, but not worth repeating.
PS I ate fantastically tasty Thai dishes during those three beautiful weeks and the choices from the extensive range turned out to be inexhaustible. I enjoyed it and I will soon be able to enjoy it again in December because then I will return to experience another two wonderful weeks!
Where relevant: I fully endorse the above advice from the Ministry of Health. My Thai partner almost died from it after eating this delicacy in Chiang Mai. The warning lists the cause as 'particularly the high dose of histamine', but for my partner the probable cause was the poison used to trap or kill the insects, whether or not in combination with highly contaminated cooking oil.
In 'the best hospital in Pattaya' they didn't know what to do. After 3 days of unsuccessful Intensive Care treatment (very high fever & strongly increased heart rate) they wanted to wait another 3 days for 'a specialist from Bangkok'. I firmly rejected that and had my partner transported by ambulance to Bangkok the same evening. By the end of the next day, the disease was already largely under control. In total, the illness required 10 days of costly hospitalization.
Read more about eating insects and allergies at: http://duurzaaminsecteneten.nl/insecten-eten/insecten-eten-en-allergie/