Natural poison test (shell poison, blowfish poison)

Food poisoning occurs when bivalve (scallops, mussels, clams, clams, oysters, etc.) eats poisonous plankton (spiral algae) in seawater and accumulates toxins and eats them. The causative substance is called shellfish poison.
Depending on the symptoms, it is classified into paralytic shellfish poison, diarrheal shellfish poison, neurological shellfish poison, memory loss shellfish poison, etc.
Poisonous components include saxytoxin and okadic acid.

The Food Sanitation Laboratory tests paralytic shell toxic and diarrheal shell venom, referring to the timing of shellfish poisoning and toxicity information from the production area.

About 30 minutes after eating, the lips, tongue, face, limbs, etc. are paralyzed.
In case of mild illness, it recovers in 24-48 hours.
In severe cases, symptoms such as motor disorders, headaches, vomiting, language disorders, and covetedness appear, and as paralysis progresses, death may occur due to dyspnea.

Severe diarrhea is the main symptom, which can be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. There are no deaths.

Fugu poison is a powerful neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin, which is said to be about 1000 times more toxic than potassium cyanide.
It is said that toxic symptoms due to blowfish poison include numbness and vomiting of lips and limbs in about 1 to 3 hours after eating, and in the worst case, death in about 8 hours.
Fugu has different toxic parts depending on the type, so it is necessary to judge whether it is edible or impossible for each part such as muscles, skin, and testis.
In addition, damage to toxic parts when handling fish may pollute the parts that can be eaten.
For this reason, food poisoning due to blowfish cooked by amateurs occurs almost every year, and deaths have been reported.
Let's eat blowfish at a shop with a professionally qualified cook.

Fugu provided at stores and restaurants is properly processed by specialized puffer fish processors (fugu kitchen knives in Kanagawa Prefecture) approved by prefectural governors.
The Food Sanitation Laboratory conducts inspections of processed blowfish products distributed in the market to confirm that they are properly labeled and to check whether toxic parts have been removed.