Nutmeg

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Most people know of nutmeg, a common spice. Goes well in eggnog and such like.

What most people don't know, and continues my theme that everything is bad for your and laboratory rats at some level, is that nutmeg is toxic. Certainly if you applied to have it approved for use as a new drug you wouldn't get it past the food authorities.

We had a fruitcake submitted due to a complaint that the consumer's lips tingled when she ate the cake. Was it contaminated? No, but it had high levels of nutmeg.

Wikipedia says of nutmeg toxicity:

In low doses, nutmeg produces no noticeable physiological or neurological response.

Large doses can be dangerous (potentially inducing convulsions, palpitations, nausea, eventual dehydration, and generalized body pain).

Users report both negative and positive experiences, involving strong hallucinations, and in some cases quite severe anxiety.

Use of nutmeg as a recreational drug is unpopular due to its unpleasant taste and its possible negative side effects, including dizziness, flushes, dry mouth, accelerated heartbeat, temporary constipation, difficulty in urination, nausea, and panic. In addition, experiences usually last well over 24 hours making recreational use rather impractical.

Good reason to cut back on the nutmeg and up the rum.
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Curry Powder

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Sara asked about curry powder.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with curry powder. It has been safely used for many centuries, following time honoured and well proven practices.

But what if those practices are not followed?

First, let's look at what curry powder is. It is the ground mixture of spices, seeds of a variety of plants. Seeds that have been exposed to the environment. There is nothing abnormal in that but, because of their origin, the seeds that go into curry powder will bring with them a variety of organisms from the environment. Notably Salmonella.

Now, how is curry traditionally prepared? You heat oil in a pan and cook the powder in this oil. Ostensibly to 'bring out the flavour' but, by a happy coincidence, it also sterilises the powder. You then add meat, vegetables, whatever and continue with making your curry.

What happens if you deviate from this long proven, survival enhancing, cooking practice? What if you are a new age cook and make a curried pasta salad where you just mix the warm (!) pasta, mayonnaise, vegetables, cream and curry powder and stir? Nothing much if you eat it straight away. But bacteria will double roughly every 20min at room temperature; what if you make your salad early and leave it for a few hours before eating? Not a good idea - the salad is warm, moist and protein rich - happy times for the bacteria.

Because of the risk, spices are one of the few things that are permitted to be irradiated to sterilise them. But this does not teach people safe handling practices for a potentially dangerous food. People will just be ignorant of the dangers and at risk from spices that are not irradiated.
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