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Can Insect (etc.) Venom Poison Wine, Juice, and Other Foodstuffs?

Gloria X said:
how serious is a risk of insect poison getting into wine or grape juice from a crushed spider/scorpion?

They make wine in big giant vats and casks, and store them for weeks or months in big barrels. I suppose grape juice is made in similarly large quantities.

The amount of venom in a scorpion or black widow is enough to make you sick, but it's tiny! That would be less than a drop in a big vat of wine or juice- nobody would ever notice it.
 
I thought so myself, the venom concentration would be too small. But the possibility of any poison/venom getting into wine before it is bottled ... I guess it's the same uncertainty of any potential mass poisoning whether it's bread rolls, beef, milk or liquor. I remember watching a TV show about 20 years back about a baker who added rat poison into his last batch of rolls before going and taking his own life. That's scary.
 
What about the French Village that went mad because of Ergot poisoning (I.e. LSD) from a crop of Rye used in baking the village's bread. They were throwing themselves out of windows and allsorts. I can't be bothered to research this for you, sorry.

A bloke at work used to work at a supermarket. He was once obliged to stamp on a massive spider that scuttled out of a batch of bannanas, before any customers saw.
He said it was a tarantula, though he is prone to exaggeration.
I would have thought that there is greater risk from being stung/bitten by a living hitchhiking nasty, then there is of being poisoned by venom contamination.
 
Yes, I've read about the French case - mass halucinations with casualties, limb-breaking, etc. But that wasn't an evil plan - just spores getting into flour.

As to bananas, this spider case sounds like a true one. And I recommend that you always break apart large bunches - in the shop, not at home. :eek!!!!: Not to mention the mysterious gas they use on bananas to make them ripen faster ...
 
Assuming that you haven't any open cuts or sores in your mouth or throat, it's perfectly possible to drink some types of snake venoms, and I'd guess some other species' venom, as they've broken down into harmless fragments by the digestive system, before being absorbed. (However, don't try this at home)

Its only when they're injected directly into the blood stream, that you have a problem....:cross eye
 
joester said:
What about the French Village that went mad because of Ergot poisoning (I.e. LSD) from a crop of Rye used in baking the village's bread. They were throwing themselves out of windows and allsorts. I can't be bothered to research this for you, sorry.
A similar thing happened in Epping, Essex in 1965, lots of middle class people got a mysterious jaundice and stomach pains, which was eventually traced back to a wholemeal loaf in a particular bakers. The flour had been transported in a van with some chemicals, one of which, called amine, spilled on the flour sack and no one noticed.
It was called the Epping Jaundice, and no one could understand at first why it was only affecting middle class people, but of course they were the only ones who ate wholemeal bread in the 60s. It also precipitated new laws concerning the transport of foodstuffs.
From my fascinating "Medical Mysteries" book by M Howell and P Ford, bought for 75p at a fair. :)
 
As living only a stones throw away from Epping I can confirm that there are still middle class people living there who bellyache quite frequently even today.
 
joester said:
What about the French Village that went mad because of Ergot poisoning (I.e. LSD) from a crop of Rye used in baking the village's bread. They were throwing themselves out of windows and allsorts. I can't be bothered to research this for you, sorry.

If you're refering to the mass poisoning in Pont D'Esprit in 1951, there is some disagreement over whether ergot was involved or not- some people think contamination of flour with a mercury-based pesticide is more likely.

Albert Hofmann (of LSD synthesis fame) was not convinced that ergot was involved here.
 
Thanks, Windwhistler. Neither the Canadian Food Information Council nor Richard Caplan, U.S. PIRG's Food Safety Advocate could answer this question. Mr Caplan remarks: "I do know that ethylene gas is used to help ripen tomatoes and help pineapple plants fruit, for example; I have never heard of health issues related to its use, although I imagine the issue is, like many food safety issues, poorly researched." Exactly.

<<< Ethylene, also known as the 'death' or 'ripening hormone'... >>>
Very reassuring. ;) Just kidding :)

<<< The common practice of placing a tomato, avocado or banana in a paper bag to hasten ripening is an example of the action of ethylene on produce. Increased levels of ethylene contained within the bag, released by the produce itself, serves as a stimulant after reabsorption to initiate the production of more ethylene. The overall effect is to hasten ripening, aging and eventually spoilage. >>>
"released by the produce itself" - I suppose warehouse management just can't sit and wait for the natural ripening to take its slow course and may speed it up by using this gas. According to a friend of mine who works at a supermarket, it's not a natural process, the staff at a warehouse do use this or other sort of gas on green bananas to speed up their ripening.
 
This scorpion tea poisoning story appeared in the Strange Days column of Fortean Times, issue #94.
A scorpion hiding in a teapot sent five members of a family to hospital in the province of Ilam in western Iran. Hadi Zade, the mother of the family, rinsed the pot, but the scorpion hid in the spout. Hit by boiling water, it released its poison which, mixed with the tea, poisoned the whole family. The Iranian paper 'Hamchahri' does not recount their eventual fate.
AFP, 9 Sept 1996

SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE: https://web.archive.org/web/19980216123549/http://www.forteantimes.com/artic/94/strange.html
 
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