Prawns... Food Poisoning
Discussion
Last night I cooked a king prawn stir fry, something I’ve done probably hundreds of times, the prawns came out of the freezer, they were put in there the day before the use by date and taken out the day after the use by date. I defrosted them slowly in the microwave on 50% power then added them to the hot pan and cooked them what I thought was pretty thoroughly.... 5-6 hours later both myself and my wife were being violently sick, 20 mins after us our youngest started, the sickness went through from 10pm to around 7 this morning and I can honestly say I’ve never felt so bad... still feel very nauseous now and can’t even contemplate eating anything. The strange thing is our oldest, (8) has been absolutely fine. He ate up everything, I divided the prawns up equally so we all had the same, very odd.
I do t think I’ll eat another prawn again....
I do t think I’ll eat another prawn again....
It could have been anything really, its almost impossible to say without going through who ate exactly what and when. But, if all four of you ate prawns and only 3 were violently ill they are unlikely to be the culprit.
Hopefully you are feeling a bit better now and the length of the illness can be an indication.
Cross contamination and in particular fecal contamination in the home can be a major source of food borne illness and that can be person specific.
Use by dates tend to be quite generous but the whole idea of defrosting frozen prawns makes me question how long they sat around for before cooking. Luke warm half cooked prawns in a bowl for an hour before stir-frying would have potential to be problematic.
Also, bean sprouts. If not cooked thoroughly they can actually have fatal consequences and as mentioned rice at ambient temps is not a clever idea if that was involved.
I know what you mean about having an aversion to something after illness, I still can;t eat scallops although I suspect it was the 9 pints of cider that went with them that was the problem
Hopefully you are feeling a bit better now and the length of the illness can be an indication.
Cross contamination and in particular fecal contamination in the home can be a major source of food borne illness and that can be person specific.
Use by dates tend to be quite generous but the whole idea of defrosting frozen prawns makes me question how long they sat around for before cooking. Luke warm half cooked prawns in a bowl for an hour before stir-frying would have potential to be problematic.
Also, bean sprouts. If not cooked thoroughly they can actually have fatal consequences and as mentioned rice at ambient temps is not a clever idea if that was involved.
I know what you mean about having an aversion to something after illness, I still can;t eat scallops although I suspect it was the 9 pints of cider that went with them that was the problem
21TonyK said:
I know what you mean about having an aversion to something after illness, I still can;t eat scallops although I suspect it was the 9 pints of cider that went with them that was the problem
I can't drink Murphy's Stout after an incident with far too many free cans of it 25 years ago!Poppiecock said:
21TonyK said:
I know what you mean about having an aversion to something after illness, I still can;t eat scallops although I suspect it was the 9 pints of cider that went with them that was the problem
I can't drink Murphy's Stout after an incident with far too many free cans of it 25 years ago!Edited by Short Grain on Tuesday 9th July 17:03
Still feeling bloody rough, all 3 of us are but the little one seems a lot better than we are. The prawns were taken straight from the microwave then in to the stir fry so no sitting around, I did actually cut one in half before serving to make sure it was cooked through.
I hadn’t considered the veg, The other ingredients were sugar snap peas from a sealed bag, peppers, onion garlic chilli and rice, obviously I boiled this first then added it.
Wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
I hadn’t considered the veg, The other ingredients were sugar snap peas from a sealed bag, peppers, onion garlic chilli and rice, obviously I boiled this first then added it.
Wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
RSVR101 said:
227bhp said:
I steer clear of raw oysters these days, it was coming out of both ends at once
Never had any problems with prawns though.
The same, didn’t want to write that on here though, thank god out bath is adjacent to the toilet!!!Never had any problems with prawns though.
Short Grain said:
Poppiecock said:
21TonyK said:
I know what you mean about having an aversion to something after illness, I still can;t eat scallops although I suspect it was the 9 pints of cider that went with them that was the problem
I can't drink Murphy's Stout after an incident with far too many free cans of it 25 years ago!Tequilla, 25 years on I cannot even look at a bottle without feeling ill. 4 days of my life lost...
Edited by Short Grain on Tuesday 9th July 17:03
I'm with Tony Bourdain on this, as I am with so many food related "issues"...as I believe it was he who wrote that there was no point letting one bout of poisoning put you off a particular ingredient. If you had mussels, or oysters, or chicken gizzards for that matter, once or twice a year for 20 years then one night you suddenly got violently sick from the dish, the chances are very slim that the same thing would happen any time in the near future. I believe the risk is justified by the reward.
I stopped eating prawns after reading about the prawn farming practices in Vietnam where most of the frozen ones come from
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/sep/21/f...
Edited to add link
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/sep/21/f...
Edited to add link
Edited by 85Carrera on Tuesday 9th July 18:09
RSVR101 said:
Still feeling bloody rough, all 3 of us are but the little one seems a lot better than we are. The prawns were taken straight from the microwave then in to the stir fry so no sitting around, I did actually cut one in half before serving to make sure it was cooked through.
I hadn’t considered the veg, The other ingredients were sugar snap peas from a sealed bag, peppers, onion garlic chilli and rice, obviously I boiled this first then added it.
Wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
Sounds like you probably destroyed anything that might have been in the food by cooking so I'd not worry too much about that. Most likely a case of bacterial contamination from a non-food source.I hadn’t considered the veg, The other ingredients were sugar snap peas from a sealed bag, peppers, onion garlic chilli and rice, obviously I boiled this first then added it.
Wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
Just because you eat before you get ill doesnt mean it was the food that made you ill, it could be the plates, cutlery, hands or utensils that served it or anything.
Such a short time between eating and illness doesnt bode well though but without stool and food samples its impossible to nail the culprit.
Simple answer, use a sanitiser in the kitchen, wash your hands before during and after anything to do with pissing, pooing and cooking. Stick to use by dates and cook everything until piping hot and steaming.
Do that and you are unlikely to die.
As I explain to all my staff on day one. Everything in a kitchen is designed to burn, cut or kill you, act with caution.
Edit:
Alternatively did the three of you that are ill do/come into contact/eat anything the fourth did not in the 48 hours before?
Edited by 21TonyK on Tuesday 9th July 18:31
RSVR101 said:
Still feeling bloody rough, all 3 of us are but the little one seems a lot better than we are. The prawns were taken straight from the microwave then in to the stir fry so no sitting around, I did actually cut one in half before serving to make sure it was cooked through.
I hadn’t considered the veg, The other ingredients were sugar snap peas from a sealed bag, peppers, onion garlic chilli and rice, obviously I boiled this first then added it.
Wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
Did the little one eat the sugar snaps?I hadn’t considered the veg, The other ingredients were sugar snap peas from a sealed bag, peppers, onion garlic chilli and rice, obviously I boiled this first then added it.
Wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
There was a programme on recently about the potential dangers of pre bagged salads and how even the tiniest bit of moisture in the bag can cause some quite nasty things to occur.
48k said:
Did the little one eat the sugar snaps?
There was a programme on recently about the potential dangers of pre bagged salads and how even the tiniest bit of moisture in the bag can cause some quite nasty things to occur.
I was thinking the same, and probably saw the same programme.There was a programme on recently about the potential dangers of pre bagged salads and how even the tiniest bit of moisture in the bag can cause some quite nasty things to occur.
Bagged salad, or similar, is off the shopping list permanently.
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