Cantaloupe’s textured skin boosts the risk of food poisoning

Watermelons were once neither red nor sweet

The gargantuan summer picnic staple has a fascinating story: 100 million tons are produced worldwide and they take up the most space of any vegetable crop in the world. But not long ago, the flesh of the melon was white and it had a bitter taste.

Cutting mold off your food does not make it safe to eat

Mold is a type of fungus, but not all fungi are molds. This video explains the value of mold, mold anatomy, health concerns around encountering and eating mold, and why mold is found all around us.

A moldy cantaloupe supercharged penicillin production

In 1943, a moldy cantaloupe found at a market in Peoria, Illinois, yielded a strain that produced six times more penicillin. Though often credited to lab worker “Moldy Mary” Hunt, accounts differ on who actually brought in the fruit.

We can get food poisoning from spending time in swimming pools, lakes, rivers, and ponds

Some of the same pathogens that may sicken us in food or water may also sicken us in recreational swimming environments. Bacteria can rub off of people’s (or animal’s) bodies or contaminate the water through a diarrheal episode. Washing your hands for at least 20 seconds before eating food if you are at the beach, pool, or other similar environments and being sure not to swallow the water are ways to help keep safe.

Keep foods out of the temperature danger zone to help avoid sickness

This graphic can help remind you what temperatures are generally unsafe for perishable food because they can promote and encourage the growth of harmful pathogens.

Just because leftovers look and smell okay doesn’t mean they’re safe to eat

Despite what the sniff test is telling you, older leftovers should probably be trashed. Pathogens that cause illness don’t usually affect the taste, smell, or appearance of food (though if they look bad, you should chuck them as well). Scientists recommend tossing leftovers within a few days even if they appear to be fine.

Eating street food while traveling isn’t recommended, but there are ways to do it more safely

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urge people to stay away from street food while traveling. But if you still want to eat it, the agency recommends making sure it’s cooked food and that it’s served steaming hot. Also, avoid eating any raw vegetables as they may be more likely to harbor pathogens.

Natural toxins produced on plants or consumed by animals may cause food poisoning

When humans eat plants with certain natural toxins on them—including a family of toxins called aflatoxins that fungi produce on crops like peanuts and corn— they can become ill with food poisoning. Toxins can still harm humans even if animals or plants appear fine to the human eye. The World Health Organization advises that we should throw away moldy or discolored foods, refrain from eating wild plants or mushrooms that aren’t definitively nonpoisonous, and remember that just because something is “natural” it’s not always safe to eat.

One in six Americans contracts food poisoning each year.

Foods shouldn't be defrosted on the counter, but microwaving to defrost is okay

This wide-ranging video from the US Food and Drug Administration explains causes of food poisoning and tips for consumers. The agency's advice includes that we should separate meat and eggs from our veggies and fruits in our shopping carts, during food prep, and in the fridge (with meat located below veggies in the refrigerator in case it drips).

Lengthy incubation periods are why it's tough to link foodborne illness to specific foods.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios, and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

Why bananas are in trouble

The average American eats over 25 pounds of bananas every year, but we won't for long if a deadly soil fungus continues to spread. Learn what scientists are doing to save the popular fruit.

How texture affects taste

Texture is the brain's interpretation of several sensations, including pressure, as registered by our teeth, tongue, and finger tips, and sound, as recorded by our ears. Texture also speaks to food particle sizes—smaller than 35 microns contributes to the sensation of creamy—and the balance between flavor and mouth time, such as the crunch of a crispy chip or the bounce of a chewy caramel.

Mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced by fungi—some show up in food

About a quarter of the world’s agricultural products are contaminated with mycotoxins. Some of these compounds can cause serious health problems, including cancer, so the US government has set up monitoring programs to detect them in our food and in animal feed. Humans can become ill if they eat contaminated food, but also if they ingest products from animals that had previously consumed these toxic compounds, such as milk from a cow that ate contaminated corn.

Scientists have found that kitchen sponges that don't appear dirty or greasy may still harbor bacteria that can cause foodborne illness, and the cleaning items should be discarded regularly, including after wiping surfaces that have come into contact with raw meat.

The mystery of the cucumber, from coiling tendrils to its bitter, mature fruit

Cucumus sativus was first cultivated 3,000 years ago in the Himalaya of India, appearing in ancient Sanskrit hymns in the Hindu tradition. They are typically harvested well before maturation, as their yellow, final fruit is bitter. Their coiling tendrils were so distinct they prompted famed naturalist Charles Darwin to publish one of his lesser-known works, "On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants." Its refreshing coolness inspired cucumber-derived body washes and sprays over millennia.

Food poisoning can sometimes cause serious long-term health issues

Although foodborne illness can be relatively mild and cause short-term discomfort, more rarely it can also cause long-term severe health consequences, depending on your individual risk factors, the severity of your sickness, and the care you receive. Kidney failure is one serious complication associated with certain types of food poisoning. Meningitis, hepatitis, arthritis, and pancreatitis are also rare and serious foodborne illness complications. If a pregnant person gets food poisoning, it can cause health issues for the fetus.

Ultraprocessed foods include preservatives, dyes, sweeteners, and more

Processed foods are those that have been altered from their original state, which includes numerous processes that we consider natural, such as cooking or salting. Ultraprocessed foods contain at least one item that wouldn’t be found in a kitchen, like hydrogenated oils or high-fructose corn syrup. It’s estimated that nearly 75% of all foods consumed in the US are ultraprocessed, though that doesn’t mean that all of them are unhealthy. In fact, some, such as prepackaged whole wheat bread and soy milk, are recognized for their health benefits.

In the 19th century, ice-cream-related illnesses were somewhat regular in America thanks to vendors' poor hygienic practices.

Jam and jelly differ in texture because of how fruit is processed

Jam contains crushed fruit with preserved pulp and fibers for a thicker, spreadable texture. Jelly is made from filtered fruit juice and produces a smooth, translucent gel. The distinction reflects preservation methods developed to extend fruit shelf life while tailoring texture and appearance.

The fish in sushi is usually frozen to eliminate parasites

Most raw fish contain parasites, but sushi restaurants and fish markets use “super freezers” to make the food safe for consumption. The United States Food and Drug Administration warns that frozen raw seafood can still contain parasites, depending on the type of fish and the conditions of the “super freezer.”

Food poisoning investigations have led to more than 1 billion pounds of food recalls

PulseNet is the US government’s real-time foodborne illness tracking system for leading causes of food poisoning. There, a network of labs and scientists share DNA sequences for pathogens collected from contaminated food and also from sickened individuals, looking for patterns in the pathogens’ genome sequences that will help them hopefully finger a certain food, warehouse, producer, or restaurant.

How those Pakistani Mangoes make it to shelves near you is more complicated than you think.

Customs restrictions, high transport costs, and a short shelf life have made the world’s greatest mangoes — grown in Pakistan — difficult to come by in the U.S.

Exposing fetuses to certain flavors in the womb could lead to children being less picky eaters

A new study found that 3-year-olds were less averse to the smell of vegetables they had been repeatedly exposed to in utero, suggesting that what mothers eat in late pregnancy can leave a lasting imprint on their children's tastes.

Understanding the biochemistry of ingredients and taste can improve flavor and texture

Keeping eggs at room temperature produces smoother batters when baking, and doing the same with tomatoes helps prevent a mealy, granular mouthfeel. Salting meat a day before gives more time for proteins to break down, improving flavor and tenderness, while cooking vegetables in well-salted water can lock in nutrients and color.

Food companies usually issue recalls voluntarily and you can be automatically notified about them

Protecting yourself from food poisoning means staying on top of food recall announcements. Notices about these from the US government, which you can automatically receive after signing up at this link, note what products have been recalled by food companies. Companies alert the US Food and Drug Administration or the US Department of Agriculture when they issue recalls so the public can stay informed.

Iceberg lettuce was the salad staple people ate for most of the 20th century, popular due to its durability, long shelf life, and mild flavor.

Although rare, HFMD can spreads in pools due to poor bathroom hygiene

In pools with inadequate levels of chlorine, this disease can spread via the poop-to-mouth route, though this isn't one of the most common ways the disease is transmitted. People can become infected by swallowing contaminated pool water after little kids (or their parents) don't do an adequate job removing virus-laden feces from the child before the child enters the water.

See the incubation periods for certain food poisoning-causing organisms

Read this chart that lists common food sources of different foodborne illness-causing pathogens and typical times between exposure and symptom onset.

Freezer burn is the result of moisture leaving ice cream, something that's easily avoidable.

Alpha-gal allergy is a problem for red meat lovers, and that same alpha-gal sugar is an issue for xenotransplants, too—since it's present in pigs, human bodies reject pig-to-human transplants as foreign once they detect the substance.

Reporting food poisoning aids in limiting outbreaks

If you suspect you were sickened by meat or poultry or by other food products (or your pet was sickened), the US has different voluntary online reporting forms and hotlines you can call. There’s even one for concerns about potentially contaminated pet food products. If you were potentially sickened at a restaurant, however, you report that directly to state and local health departments, not the federal government.

Here's why you've never eaten a banana seed

Hank loves bananas and is worried about their future, so he did some investigating and wrote this four-minute episode of SciShow to share some kind of scary banana truths with us.

Norovirus is the leading cause of food poisoning in the US

The illness is typically transmitted when virus-laden feces gets into another person’s mouth. That occurs when people do not properly wash their hands, contaminating food or surfaces.

Humans need higher levels of water-soluble vitamins that easily pass through the body

There are two types of vitamins: lipid soluble and water-soluble. Water-soluble vitamins like B vitamins and vitamin C are in the watery parts of fruits and easily pass through the human body before being taken up by the bloodstream or exiting your body. But lipid (fat) soluble vitamins must be absorbed through the intestinal wall, carried by proteins, and then may be stored in the liver and other body parts—meaning there is greater risk of overdosing.

Watch the iterative process of successfully printing a slice of vegan cheesecake

3D printing food requires integrating ingredients with a variety of properties, which may not all resist the physical stress of stacking. This means successful 3D printing of food may require rethinking how ingredients are layered and modifying ratios of each, potentially sacrificing taste for structural integrity.

Listen to how the 1902 'poison squad' experiments changed food safety in America

As part of government research, a group of young men were paid to eat standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—which revealed the dangers of unregulated food. The work was led by the first FDA commissioner, Harvey Wiley, who helped end the "century of the great stomachache."

Ultraprocessed foods are linked with a 58% elevated risk of developing dementia.

In 1982, around 20% of the people who ate some of the roughly 7,400 bags of cashews sold as part of a Little League fundraiser in Pennsylvania broke out in rashes because of natural urushiol residue on the nuts' shells that hadn't been removed and fully cooked off—the same allergy-inducing substance found in poison ivy.

Intriguing facts about tomatoes

This episode of the Lunchbox Envy podcast dives deep into the world of tomatoes. Why do they taste nicer in certain settings? Do they "scream"? What are their health benefits? All of these questions and more are answered about the luscious red fruit. Listen and reflect on the historical and cultural significance of the tomato.

Scientists suspect that Alexander the Great and Rudyard Kipling are among the public figures that may have died from food poisoning.

How our sense of taste evolves as we age

Kids are hardwired to prefer sweets over greens, with sweetness a shorthand for calorie-rich and bitter flavor warning of potentially noxious plants. This holds true even in the womb, where fetuses have been seen via ultrasound scans grimacing as their hosts consume kale capsules. As they age into double digits and beyond, their taste cells and sense of smell diminish, leading to broader and less sensitive palates.

How spoiled meat helped uncover a bacterium that can survive the vacuum of space

When a can of ground beef and pork spoiled despite attempts to sterilize it with gamma radiation, researcher Arthur Anderson isolated the bacteria in the food and discovered Deinococcus radiodurans. The polyextremophile has since been found on the walls of nuclear reactors and overcomes radiation damage through highly optimized DNA repair mechanisms.

How chefs suspend liquid in edible pearls resembling caviar to introduce a new texture to fluids

Through spherification, drops of a solution of sodium alginate and a flavored liquid are placed in a calcium lactate solution, which forms a chemical skin around them. This is because calcium replaces the sodium in the alginate chains, forming a gel around each drop's liquid interior.

How the methods of catching fish for food affects their taste

Commercially caught fish are often killed through suffocation, allowing the causing the fish extreme stress and flooding their bodies with stress hormones and lactic acid. These chemicals cause the fish's flesh to become bitter where it was once rich and quickens the rotting process.

Restaurants are where most of us contract food poisoning in the US.

Why processed foods can be so addictive

In recent years, many critics have voiced their concerns about the food industry and how ultra-processed foods affect our health. Despite our awareness of these issues, processed foods are still incredibly hard to remove from our diet. In this podcast by The Guardian, Dr. Chris van Tulleken explains how “junk food” is created to get us hooked, how it negatively affects us, and what we can do to improve our eating habits.

Foodborne illnesses cost our country an estimated $74.7 billion in 2023

A US government estimate puts the cost of all foodborne illness in 2023 at almost $75 billion dollars. In a report published by the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, government analysts detailed how the burden of foodborne illness includes medical costs, but also more hidden costs like lost wages. The analysis also breaks down estimated costs by pathogen.

The 'kissing bug disease' occurs when a bug's parasite-laden poop gets into your blood

Chagas disease transmission can occur when triatomine bugs bite someone infected with a Trypanosoma cruzi parasite and then bite someone else, passing on the pathogen, though the parasite can also be transmitted in other ways, including via food, congenitally, and through blood transfusions. The bugs tend to feed at night and can bite anywhere on the body, but their reputation for biting people around the mouth and eyes created the idea that the bugs were "kissing" humans. Recent research suggests the disease may be endemic in the US.