Want to enjoy St Patrick’s Day? Steer clear of corned beef
- Revelers eat corned beef and cabbage to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland
- Due to the way the former is prepared, it can become a breeding ground for bugs
- Eating the meat out of a tin is safe – only the freshly-made variety are dangerous
Stephen Matthews For Mailonline
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It’s not just the booze that could see you turning green this St Patrick’s Day.
Eating some traditional Irish foods could leave you with a bout of food poisoning, an expert warns.
Across the world, it’s customary for enthusiastic revellers to eat corned beef and cabbage to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland.
But because of the way the former is prepared and served, it can become a breeding ground for potentially lethal bugs.
Eating some traditional Irish foods on St Patrick’s Day could leave you with a bout of food poisoning, an expert warns
Richard Conroy, founder of illness compensation firm SickHoliday, said: ‘Being half Irish myself, I know how well a pint of Guinness and a portion of corned beef hash go together.
‘In fact, that’s a snack you’ll see served at Irish pubs across the world, particularly in Ireland and America.
‘But there’s good reason to swerve the corned beef and find nourishment elsewhere, as if it’s been prepared incorrectly, it can make you very poorly indeed.
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‘Very often, however, when it’s mass produced and served up to guests who may have enjoyed a few too many pints, it’s a disaster waiting to happen.’
He added: ‘My advice would be to avoid the corned beef pub snacks this St Patrick’s Day. Your stomach will thank you for it.’
While corned beef from tins should prove safe for eating, it’s the freshly-made deli variety that could be a health hazard.
Because of the way corned beef is prepared and served, it can become a breeding ground for potentially lethal stomach bugs (stock)
ANOTHER BENEFIT OF ST PATRICK’S DAY
A pint of Guinness each day may help to prevent you from going deaf, research in December suggested.
The popular beverage contains high levels of iron, which Pennsylvania State University scientists believe helps to ward off hearing loss.
While leafy green vegetables, brown rice and some meat may also help, according to the study.
But around 30 per cent of the world’s population are believed to be anaemic – leaving them at risk of losing their ability to hear, experts say.
When meat is ‘corned’, it typically means it’s a cut of beef like brisket, rump or round that’s been cured in brine or pickled.
It then needs to be cooked properly, with the temperature reaching 70°C (158°F).
But it’s tricky to know whether the meat has been thoroughly cooked or not without using an accurate thermometer.
Often, the beef is left to cool before being reheated and served the next day.
However, if it hasn’t been refrigerated promptly, it’s prone to forming Clostridium perfringens bacteria, which causes gastroenteritis.
And if it isn’t reheated the following day to at least the same temperature it was cooked, the bugs will continue to thrive.
It comes after several notable bouts of corned beef food poisoning. In 1993, a St Patrick’s Day outbreak of food poisoning affected 150 people in Cleveland, Ohio.
An investigation revealed how all had eaten corned beef from a particular deli. The meat hadn’t been cooled properly and had then been served the next day at room temperature.
A similar outbreak on the same day, and in the the same year, in Virginia, saw 115 struck sick after corned beef was served lukewarm.
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