People still are poisoned but almost only when eating fugu at home, most often after catching the fish while fishing. This means no chance for poisoning, which is why the Tokyo Municipal Government considered doing away with testing and licensing fugu chefs. These days around 90% of the fugu eaten is farm-raised, usually in ponds filled with onsen ( hot spring) water. The toxin acts to block the absorption of sodium, which then prevents muscles from contracting, or in other words, paralysis. The toxin, which is 1,000 times deadlier than cyanide, comes from fish ingesting a type of bacteria that lives on corals in the sea. Mafugu (normal fugu pufferfish) (Image: PIXTA) Still, some people continued to seek out the toxins, including the Living National Treasure kabuki actor Bandō Mitsugorō VIII who, in 1975, died after eating four servings of liver after convincing a Kyoto restaurant he was immune to the poison. Japan started requiring fugu chefs to pass a test and be licensed to prepare fugu and banned the serving of parts with toxin in 1958, a year in which 168 people in Japan died from fugu poisoning. But the risk of catastrophic failure is always there, just as with eating fugu. In most cases, the chute will open, and the skydiver will land safely. The practice might be likened to parachuting out of planes. In the not-too-distant past, it was not uncommon for thrill-seeking men-and it was almost always men-to enjoy a meal of fugu, especially including a bit of the liver followed by a few hours of partial paralysis. When ingested by humans, the toxin acts to block the absorption of sodium, which then prevents muscles from contracting, or in other words, paralysis. The toxin is formed in the bodies of wild fugu as a byproduct of eating a certain kind of bacteria that lives on corals. The toxin can be present in the livers of the fish, as well as the testes, ovaries, and even the skin, depending on which variety of fugu it is. The most popular fugu for eating, torafugu (Takifugu rubripes), the king of Fugu, and mafugu (ordinary fugu, Takifugu porphyreus), the queen of fugu, can contain a poison, tetrodotoxin to be more precise.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |