Poisonous food

How exactly would you know if a food is poisonous? Is this just something people learn and then pass on, or is there some way to ascertain from looking/smelling/touching the food?

 

The best thing to do is get a book on edible plants. Instead of guessing what is edible and what is not, this might be the safest thing to do. I saw a book like this online not too long ago. Being able to identify plants starts with a knowledge of them, you can also go outside and see if you can find any. I've found a few things that I could eat or make tea out of right in my back yard after reading about edible plants.

 

Thre are some chemical treatments to detect cyanide, arsenic, heavy metals and formadehyde. In survival circumstances, is quite unlikely to find any deliberately poisoned food but flora and fauna that are lethal for human consumption. Spoiled meat is easy to detect due to the foul smell of decomposition, and for poisonous animals (dart frogs for example) I suggest to be wary of colors, the color of an insect,amphibian or reptile can provide you a hint whether is poisonous or not.

 

It's mostly something that we acquire from someone else.There are many books , websites and other sources on how to tell if something is poisonous or not.Usually there isn't a way of telling if something is poisonous just by it's look, so it's best to have knowledge on poisonous foods.With many resources out there i'm sure you can find something.

 

For the most part, where I grew up, I know what to eat and what not to eat because I was taught at a young age while on the trail or at the beach, as to what is edible and what isn't. If you threw me in the the jungles of a remote South American country, I wouldn't know what to eat exactly. I can spot well know fruits but those that are location specific, forget about it.

I'm from Hawaii. I can survive near the beach or in the forest mountain tops. When it comes to the dessert or snow, I'm a bit lost. I'm studying up on those weather specific places, but experience is the best guide. I need to get out there.

 

I've heard of the universal edibility test. Works thusly:

1. Use the skin contact test — crush the plant and apply some of it's sap on your skin. If it causes some irritation then that plant is probably poisonous. If doesn't, proceed to step #2.

2. Use the Chew test — chew a small part of the plant and keep it in your mouth for 15 minutes. If there's some reaction, spit out and forget about eating it. However if there isn't any reaction swallow it and don't eat anything else for the next 8 hours.

3. If after 8 hours you there are no ill effects, that you'll know that the plant you were testing probably isn't poisonous.

 

Yes, I have heard of the books, this is definitely a good place to start. I suppose if I see something that's not in the book I should just stay away from it just in case! Haha.

 

Thanks for the step by step method, it's very useful! I think I would be a bit too cautious for the Chew test though, maybe I could chew a very small amount for a few minutes and see if anything happened. Not sure I'd have the confidence to swallow it though!

 

That sounds like a good idea. It's better to be safe than sorry, and there are a lot of things you may find that are edible anyway. I was surprised how many things I saw outside that are edible, even dandelions.

 

I think just doing your research before hand, is probably your best bet. Look up what poisonous plants, and what safe to eat plants, are around the area you're going too. There are usually some telltale signs if something is edible or not. And it's really important that you know what's edible too. You can't afford to eat something poisonous out in the wild. If it doesn't straight up killing you, getting you sick could be hugely detrimental in all situations.

 

With insects, I would probably not eat one that is alien to me. With animals, the same thing applies. And with vegetation, I would use my olfactory nerves to ascertain if the food is edible. The odor of the fruit or vegetable can somehow tell you if it is edible. I remember the testing we did in our home economics subject in high school. There were 5 specimens on the table and we are to use our noses to determine if it can be eaten or not. Majority of the class passed the grade but there are those who failed with the joke that they have clogged noses.

 

It's probably best to learn beforehand. Some plants and such are obviously poisonous others are subtle.

 

Any expired food is poisonous and should not be consumed. Food can be contaminated by not keeping it safe or refrigerated. Any food that has started growing moulds should be rendered poisonous. Food can be poisonous even when it does not smell.

 

I have always wanted to know this, I was doing some research on how to kill, gut, and cook a rabbit, rats, snakes, and a many other animals that I could eat in order to survive. Then I came across a blog post where they were talking about not knowing if what you caught had some type of disease.

The only way to find that out would be to have the instruments that we use in today's live stock processing warehouses. Not ideal in a SHTF type of scenario. I don't want to die from eating a rat with a disease.