22 Foods You Should Never Eat if You Don't Want to Get Sick

And you're probably eating these all the time.

21 March, 2018
22 Foods You Should Never Eat if You Don't Want to Get Sick

It seems like every day there's a food (*cough cough* Chipotle) called out for causing something gross (like diarrhea) or deadly (like salmonella, listeria, or norovirus). After all, humans can easily spread viruses during food prep, and food-borne bacteria thrives at room temperature.

While you won't necessarily get sick from eating just a little bit of bacteria, it can double in number at room temperature (40 to 140 degrees) in as few as 20 minutes, according to the FDA — and eating a lot of it can trigger vomiting, diarrhea, fever, or worse if your immune system is already compromised, explains Craig Hedberg, Ph.D., an environmental health sciences professor at University of Minnesota's School of Public health, with about 30 years of experience studying foodborne illness.

Chilled and well-cooked foods (including the ones below, when prepared and stored properly) are generally safe to eat — after all, you've been eating them your whole life and have yet to keel over. But if you want to reduce your risk of eating something sickening, keep these common culprits off your plate (juuuuust in case):

1. Raw Sprouts

Most food safety experts wouldn't touch raw sprouts like alfalfa with a 10-foot pole, let alone a fork. That's because alfalfa seeds can be contaminated with bacteria like E. coli, and the conditions that grow sprouts from said seeds also foster bacterial growth — a particularly dangerous situation because sprouts are rarely cooked to kill bacteria, Hedberg explains. If you want to eat sprouts, make sure they're thoroughly rinsed and cooked. (Foodsafety.gov is pretty clear on its recommendations to avoid raw sprouts when you can.)

2. Leftover Soups, Stews, and Stir-Fries

When you take your sweet-ass time getting leftover food from the stovetop or restaurant into your fridge (the goal is to do it in two hours or less), toxin-producing spores can develop on your food, ultimately leading to illness, Hedberg​ explains. Moist, hearty foods (like stews, stir-fries, and meat sauces) are most likely to host these spores if you don't reheat your meal to the proper temperature (about 165 degrees, and yes, you need a food thermometer).

3. Leftover Rice

Your leftover rice could be harboring the toxin-producing Bacillus cereus, a type of bacteria that is picked up in rice fields that can survive even after cooking. Eating a few spores probably won't trigger any symptoms, but the spores multiply as rice cools, and eating a lot of them can give you diarrhea within 15 hours of your last bite, or nausea and vomiting as soon as 30 minutes after eating, according to FoodSafety.gov​.​ Try to eat your rice freshly cooked, and don't hang onto your leftovers (that you store in the fridge, of course) for much longer than a day.

4. Potato, Tuna, and Egg Salads

Bacteria like Staph, which can be spread by food handlers, love to grow in moist, hand-mixed dishes that sit out at delis, picnics, and brunch buffets. That's why it's best to steer clear of any room-temperature salads that look less than fresh, Hedberg​ advises.

5. Fruit Salad

Compared to a single apple you eat in one sitting, fruit salads can be handled by multiple people (whoever cuts it up and serves it) then eaten in multiple sittings, so the food is exposed to more pathogens and sits around for longer — all the more opportunity for bacteria to fester. Fruit salads also contain produce from multiple farms or orchards, which increases the likelihood of contamination somewhere along the way.

6. Rare Hamburgers

If a whole cut of meat gets contaminated during processing, it's usually just the outer layer, which is usually cooked to bacteria-killing temperatures, NBD. Burgers made from ground meat are a different story because grinding combines the meat from many different animals, distributing surface contaminants that can survive in undercooked areas of the burger. And there's no evidence that farm-raised, grass-fed, organic meat is less likely to be contaminated than mainstream animal products.

Surprisingly, fast-food burgers are probably your safest bed, according to Hedberg: "Fast-food restaurant chains have systems designed to minimize foodborne illness, so you can't buy an under-cooked hamburger if you wanted to," he says. Otherwise, using a meat thermometer is the only proven way to guarantee your food has reached a safe temperature, (which differs based on different kinds of meat and their common contaminants). Restaurants should follow safe cooking and handling processes — but you're on your own if you order your burger on the rare side.

7. Made-to-Order Food That's Prepped on an Assembly Line

"The more hands touching food and the more complex the food handling that goes on in the restaurant, the more opportunities for food borne illness," Hedberg explains, citing Chipotle's recent norovirus outbreak, where sick food workers spread the virus to the food. (The same risks hold true at ~*fAnCy~* restaurants that employ a whole team of chefs to prep fussy dishes — turns out those places aren't necessarily the safest place to eat, according to Hedberg.)

8. Unpasteurized Dairy Products

While the kind of bacteria that gets people sick tends to originate in animals' guts, there are lots of opportunities for an infected animal or environment to contaminate the milk, according to Hedberg. Pasteurization (aka heating) kills bacteria, but raw milk and cheese products aren't treated, so they're inherently risky AF.

9. Infused Oils

Get ~*fancy~* with a DIY infusion (i.e., sticking a couple gloves of garlic into an oil container) and you could put yourself at risk for a rare case of botulism triggered by soil-borne, toxin-producing bacteria that can form inside of sealed food containers — the same stuff that makes it so dangerous to home-can fruits or veggies without proper equipment, according to information distributed by the CDC.

Refrigerating your oil infusion or mixing in adding acidic ingredients like vinegar inhibit bacterial growth and save you from potentially deadly symptoms like facial paralysis and shortness of breath.​ And it'd be smart to presoak garlic, basil, oregano, and rosemary in a 3 percent citric acid solution for 24 hours before infusing in the first place, which, research suggests, can reduce the risk of contamination.

10. Foods in Punctured Cans or Swollen Containers

Punctured cans or swollen containers are two signs that the bacteria Clostridium botulinum, which leads to botulism, lies within, according to warnings issued by the USDA.

11. Leftover Baked Potatoes

Unless you refrigerated your foil-wrapped potato within two hours of removing it from the oven, the slow cooling within an airtight foil seal can facilitate the growth of botulism that can seriously get you sick. High temperatures destroy these particular toxins, so reheating to 185 degrees for at least five minutes can offer A+ protection, per the CDC. (Your meat thermometer will serve you well here.)

12. Raw Tomatoes

Raw produce is easily contaminated by bacteria because it's grown in fields full of animals and manure, which are often irrigated with water that could be contaminated, Hedberg​ explains. But tomatoes, in particular, are harvested into a tank of water to be sorted for size and color — and if that water is contaminated, the tomatoes suck that water in and become contaminated too, he says. That's not to say every tomato will make you ill: So long as you wash, then eat or refrigerate your tomatoes within a couple hours of cutting into them, you'll keep bacterial growth to a minimum. Then trust that restaurants do the same.

13. Cantaloupe

Bacteria thrives on moist foods like melon, which people rarely plow through in one sitting. Because you have to carve, seed, cut, and store it, there are so many opportunities to infect the fruit and give bacteria a chance to multiply — particularly when leftovers aren't stored properly (they should be refrigerated within about two hours, according to FoodSafety.gov). To prevent spreading bacteria from rind to pulp, scrub the outside with drinking water and a clean produce brush. ​

14. Imperfect Lettuce

Grown near the ground, where dirt and sand can accumulate between the leaves, lettuce is likely to scoop up at least a little bit of bacteria on its way to the grocery store. That bacteria can dig right into bruised areas and remain there even after rinsing — bad news for anyone who eats lettuce raw (i.e. everyone).

15. Fresh Parsley and Cilantro

Fresh herbs can pick up icky stuff from farm animals and soil, and the complex structure and teeny scale of mini leaves makes proper washing difficult, according to Hedberg. It could be why a parasitic outbreak linked to cilantro triggered flu-like symptoms in over 200 people last fall. To reduce your chance of getting sick and keep fresh herbs on the menu, the FDA recommends you store them in a fridge kept below 40 degrees, cut away damaged leaves and stems, rinse each sprig thoroughly under running water, and pat dry with a paper towel to manually remove any surface bacteria.

16. Unpasteurized Fruit Juices

A single batch of juice can contain several thousand apples — if two or three are contaminated, pressing could magnify a mini problem and ultimately make you sick. Look out for cider in particular: The juice tends to be made from apples that fall to the ground, which can lead to contamination, Hedberg says.

17. Ready-to-Eat Meats and Soft Cheeses From I-Don't-Know-When

Let these foods sit for several weeks in your fridge, where listeria bacteria can survive and thrive despite the temperature, and you could end up with a fever, muscle aches, or diarrhea the next time you dig in, Hedberg warns.

18. Undercooked Chicken

Chicken is unique in that surface bacteria like Salmonella, which can trigger diarrhea, fever, and cramping up to three days after eating, can get inside the meat (as opposed to contaminating just the surface). Again, cooking your food to the proper temperature (165 degrees for chicken) can kill any lingering bacteria, and refrigerating leftovers right away can stop remaining bacteria from multiplying. "You want to treat all meats as if it's contaminated to prevent transmissions," Hedberg says. It's why washing your hands and any surfaces that have been exposed to raw chicken is C-L-U-T-C-H to avoid transferring bacteria to ready-to-eat foods or directly shoveling these bugs into into your mouth.

19. Unpasteurized Eggs

Some strains of Salmonella can infect chickens' ovaries, transferring the bacteria to the egg, Hedberg explains. It's why pasteurized eggs, which are heated enough to kill bacteria, are the safest kind. At restaurants, where several dozen eggs can be pooled together to feed the masses more efficiently and one bad egg can infect the whole batch, according to FDA data, ask your waiter if there are unpasteurized eggs in homemade sauces and dressings. If there's any doubt, stick with hardboiled eggs, suggests Hedberg. It's the safest way to take your eggs assuming they're not mishandled on the way from their shell to your mouth.

20. Cookie Dough

As much as no one wants to see cookie dough on this list, it's a no-brainer — but not for the reasons you'd think. Even if you use pasteurized eggs in your batter, most desserts contain flour, which can pick up bacteria during the wheat-milling process, Hedberg warns. Bacteria like moisture and warmth, so it can multiply when you combine contaminated flour with warm liquids (like softened butter). Anyone who helps with the baking can transfer viruses to the mix too, so the risk remains high until your treat comes out of the oven.

21. Raw Nuts

Tree nuts are harvested when they fall to the ground, where animals and soil can contaminate the shell with harmful bacteria. Cracking the nut — a hands-on-activity — is the perfect opportunity transfer bacteria to the seed. It could be one reason why nuts are so frequently recalled for links to salmonella. Roasted nuts, on the other hand, are heated to kill off whatever they might have picked up from the ground.

22. Raw Seafood

Food safety experts turn their noses up at sushi because any fish that comes from remotely contaminated water can also become infected with bacteria. Shellfish like oysters filter water, so they're even more likely to carry the dregs of whatever pool of water they came from. Lucky for condiments lovers, highly acid solutions like lemon juice or vinegar used to dress ceviche, and super salty solutions like soy sauce can help reduce bacteria growth.

But still: Without heat to kill off said bacteria, your best bet is to pray while you chew your sashimi — and trust your seafood is responsibly sourced and prepared. (So GL out there!)

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Credit: Cosmopolitan
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