Offal - Health and Food Safety Issues

Health and Food Safety Issues

The offal of certain animals is unsafe to consume:

• The internal organs of the fugu pufferfish are highly toxic — in Japan, fugu can only be prepared by trained master chefs, working under extremely strict regulations, sanitary conditions, and licensing. Even a residual portion of fugu toxin can be fatal.
• The liver of the polar bear is unsafe to eat because it is very high in vitamin A and can cause hypervitaminosis A, a dangerous disorder. This has been recognized since at least 1597 when Gerrit de Veer wrote in his diary that, while taking refuge in the winter in Nova Zemlya, he and his men became gravely ill after eating polar-bear liver. Seal liver is similarly toxic.
• Some animal intestines are very high in coliform bacteria and need to be washed and cooked thoroughly to be safe for eating.
• Nervous system tissue can be contaminated with TSE prions, which cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, "mad cow disease"); in some jurisdictions these offal are classified as specified risk materials and are subject to special regulations.
• Offal very high in purines can precipitate an acute attack of gout in someone with the condition.
• Certain types of offal, including kidneys, stomach, intestines, heart, tongue, and liver, can be very high in cholesterol and saturated fats.
• The practice of feeding raw offal to dogs on farms and ranches can spread echinococcosis, a potentially fatal parasitic disease of animals and humans.