Quick: Name one of the most common seafood poisonings you can get. If you said E. coli, salmonella, listeria, or any of the other food-borne illnesses making news and populating editorial pages, you’d be wrong. The answer is scombroid poisoning, a Z-list pathogen that needs a PR makeover—stat!—because no one seems to know about it.
Until Howard Rubenstein takes up the cause, I’ll share that I got scombroid within an hour of eating bad tuna last year. And the same thing could happen to you after a nice meal of salmon or even sardines. Symptoms include shortness of breath, rapid pulse, nausea, and an unpleasant full-body flush that sends you rushing to the head of the line at the ER certain you’re having the Big One. Just when the nurses pull out the paddles, a world-weary doc saunters over, looks you up and down, and asks: “Did you have tuna for lunch?” An affirmative response gets you a quick injection in the rear and your walking papers.
Off to the ER You Go
At my last job, three people who ate tuna burgers at the same diner—including me—ended up in the emergency room within an hour with a diagnosis of scombroid. More recently, a current colleague was sent home by the company nurse with a case of the toxin after ordering tuna at a steak restaurant.
We thought we were, ahem, flukes. Turns out, scombroid poisoning is the leading cause of morbidity worldwide from toxic-fish consumption, and it accounts for a whopping 46% of the outbreaks of seafood illnesses in the United States.
Here’s how it happens. Concentrated histamine, or scombrotoxin, is produced by the mass death of bacteria in tuna (and other members of the scombroid family, such as mackerel) almost immediately after it lands on a fisherman’s deck. Although chilling or cooking the fish before the bacteria build up can prevent it, once the toxin is made, it can’t be destroyed by heat, cold, smoke, or even my Uncle Nicky’s secret bratwurst marinade.
Next page: How you can prevent scombroid poisoning
Comments (2)
I tried to print the interesting and informative article “The Common Food Poisoning You’ve Never Heard Of”. Even after trying to enlarge the font, I find myself trying to read miniscule print with all this advertising, etc on both sides of the sheet. I would like to have this, and other, information to read and absorb, but can’t afford to WASTE all my ink and paper for ads, etc. Is there a way for me to print JUST THE ARTICLES in which I am interested????
AHHH! I had this happen to me several years ago!!! But I was one of the worse case scenarios, it did indeed constrict my airway, plus my whole body swelled like a balloon. I was a frightening sight, and I was miserable (not to mention scared because I couldn’t breathe).
I have found that I cannot eat much fish now, I get very sick and the numbing/tingling doesn’t go away quickly. I’m limited to a small piece of tuna once or twice a year, but I can tolerate white fish such as flounder 3-4 times a year. Any more than that, I stay sick for a couple of days, and it’s just not worth it!
I ALWAYS tell people that if that very first bite doesn’t taste right – don’t eat it!! (I only had 2 bites.)
As perishable as seafood and fish are – I am still amazed that it’s not inspected. Even if it was just ’spot inspected’, it could increase the proper handling of seafood and decrease illness.
Stay well!