What is the most dangerous food in the world? Harrison Dursley, Sardinia
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Readers reply
Apparently, san-nakji can be fatal. It’s a Korean dish of baby octopus tentacles, freshly prepared and sliced – but you’d have to be unfazed by being presented with wriggling, slimy tentacles to eat. [Nerve activity makes the pieces move posthumously.]
Unlike fugu, san-nakji isn’t poisonous. Instead, choking to death can happen if the squirming tentacles aren’t eaten correctly, because the suction pads on the chopped-up tentacles can and do stick to the inside of the throat and block airways. auntmabelsknickers
I nominate pufferfish. The ovaries accumulate tetrodotoxin, which is an incredibly potent inhibitor of nerve function. Pufferfish chefs need to be specially trained and licensed just so they can be relied upon to remove the ovaries. Joseph J Boyle
Fugu. Hands down the most dangerous food in the world. Evan Llewellyn
As a chef, I have noticed the number of governmental warnings go up alarmingly concerning salmonella in different veggies. In the last five years alone, green “spring” onions have killed people in the hundreds.
So eat fugu sushi all you want, just watch the sprinkle of green onion stalk on your salad … David Hall
Despite all the votes for fugu (absolutely safe in restaurants because they remove all the poisonous parts), the real silent killer in Japan is mochi (glutinous rice), eaten hot and solidifying in your throat. Kills a lot of old people who don’t chew and swallow fast enough. SatiricalSenryu
Mochi – the only thing that can kill a Japanese granny. TigerRepellingRock
Lettuce. Takeaways. Just eat the kebab, throw away the bag of salad. Randomusername222
“Danger” has to be quantified to answer the question properly. Beef and palm oil are most probably the greatest threat to climate change and therefore the survival of Earth as we know it. Sugar in all its industrially processed forms is most probably the most dangerous to human populations. Finally, there’s the most inherently poisonous or imminently fatal, of which a number of sea creatures incorrectly prepared most probably vie for top position. snazpizaz2
I think the answer depends on whether you mean the most dangerous food to eat or the most dangerous to cook.
A strong contender for most dangerous to eat that I’m sure will spring vividly to mind for many people is shark-infested custard.
But, if my own harrowing experience is anything to go by, beans on toast is easily the most dangerous dish to cook. The scenario that, I can now see in hindsight, I was lucky to survive, went like this.
Come back from pub. Get beans, open can, gashing hand on sharp edge. tip beans into saucepan – half of them miss, land on kitchen floor. Light gas, put pan on. Slide two slices of bread under grill. Go and watch telly. Woken by smoke alarm. Run to kitchen, slip on beans on floor, fall and bang head on kitchen cabinet, stunning self. Stagger to feet, open back door, throw flaming toast off grill pan into dustbin, also pan with bean remains welded to bottom, burning arm on grill pan and setting light to plastic dustbin. Dustbin goes up spectacularly like Roman candle, burns down shed.
Give up. Go to bed. ThereisnoOwl
The most dangerous food may well be alcohol, because of its well-known effect of removing all common sense. gallerymouse
Beef, the cultivation of which is wreaking global catastrophe via land clearing, methane emission and grain and water wastage. Su Lampe
A bacon sandwich. But only if you’re running for office. SmilingJizo
The wrong mushrooms. Quietchat
Death cap and destroying angel – exactly like a paracetamol overdose and one of the most horrible ways to die. darrenlollipopman
The most dangerous food in the world is added pure sugar, where sucrose, glucose and corn syrup are the most common ones. Excess sugar in the blood, when experienced daily, has profound short- and long-term bad effects. Short term, it can cause hyperactivity, obesity and a craving for more food. Long term, it can lead to heart disease, strokes and bowel problems, even including cancer. In the even longer term, it can lead to premature ageing, including stiffness of the joints and excess wrinkling of the skin. Tom Jones
If you count water, then contaminated water must kill more people than all other foods combined. Gickna
I always thought a bacon tree was dangerous, but a friend reminded that an ’am bush was deadly. cymbalaria
I think the most dangerous food of all has to be humans (food to mosquitos and other parasites). They’re the only organism that will, if left unchecked, eventually wipe out almost every living thing on Earth. Shasarak
Biscoff spread. One spoonful and you’re hooked. As moreish as any drug. ZingerZanger
Lots of people die from seafood and nut allergies. Therefore I’m suggesting prawn satay … Bochi
Crumpets. Every time they get stuck in the toaster I take my life in my hands. Trekked
Cereal killers. OfTheHill
