A food scientist has said that there are two foods she will avoid because of how they’re prepared. According to the expert, who has almost three million likes on TikTok, the foods are common in our diets.
However they have a risk of carrying bacteria that makes us extremely ill. The expert, who has the username @hydroxide, said: “I’m just warning you, you are going to hate me after this video.”
Raw sprouts (cress)
Firstly, the expert said she will avoid raw sprouts, or cress as it is known in the UK. “I will occasionally eat them but they are a very, very, very high risk food. She explains that the crunchy veggies are “grown in the ground in the warmest, most moist, humid, wet environment you can imagine. And guess what? Bacteria love it.”
The only time she will eat it is if they are cooked in the right way. So if you’re a fan, you can still enjoy them.
She cautions: “Unless you’re blanching them or cooking them into submission, the sprouts you get with Pho that usually come raw, I do not touch those, I do not eat those.”
For those who don’t know, Phở – or Pho – is a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat and is served alongside a variety of veggies you can add to your dish. So the next time you a meal that comes with raw sprouts, maybe leave them out.
She concludes with her first warning by adding that when handling the food, there’s also a risk “all of that moisture carrying all the bacteria could get on your kitchen supplies as well and your counters, under your sink” and anywhere else, meaning the bacteria is all over your kitchen and you won’t know.
Burgers
The scientist, who has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok combined, said in her second warning that she will never eat “any kind of burger that has cooked more on the raw, rare side”, adding: “I will usually order a burger well done.”
She says sometimes when ground beef is being prepared, a large fork may pierce the meat to break it up, and if the spikes pierce and touch a bit that has bacteria on it, it spreads it around. She warns: “If there’s a little piece of meat down there that has E.coli or salmonella, you are basically taking that and distributing it everywhere in that ground meat.
“I know I’m very sorry and it is specifically with ground beef because turkey and grilled chicken you have to cook it to 165F (73.9C) because it’s poultry.”