Why You Can Eat Raw Fish, but You Can’t Eat Other Raw Meats
Raw fish is delicious if you like sushi , but eating other raw meat is a terrible idea. Parasites and bacteria in some raw meat products, such as pork or chicken, are much more dangerous than bacteria in fish. SciShow breaks this down.
Eating any kind of raw meat can be risky, but some types of meat are more dangerous than others, they explain, because of the cutting, storage, and of course the microbes and parasites that live in this type of animal. Raw fish can be contaminated with dangerous parasites, but generally, if it’s frozen or sourced from a clean kitchen, it’s probably safe. But with other meat it is more difficult. SciShow’s Hank Green explains:
What about other meats like beef, chicken and pork? The bacteria found in these animals, such as strains of Salmonella and E. coli, are generally more dangerous to humans than any bacteria found in fish. Many harmful microbes live in the intestines of cattle, not in the muscles where we chop the steaks. But beef can be contaminated if the butcher punctures the gastrointestinal tract. So there may be bacteria on the surface of the steaks. Usually a good hot whisper is enough to kill anything infectious, and leaving a red inside is okay, because it’s sterile there.
On the other hand, ground beef is a little more dangerous because any of these surface microbes can mix inside. For this reason, you probably don’t want to eat raw hamburger meat. The video has a lot more detail, so watch it above or at the link below.
Why do we eat raw fish and not raw chicken? | SciShow (YouTube)