A food safety adviser has revealed why you should avoid ordering fish dishes on Mondays – and it’s for the same reason the Royal Family avoids it on official engagements
Fish and seafood lovers beware – a doctor warns against ordering any of these foods at a restaurant on Mondays – and there’s good reason why.
Dr Darin Detwiler is a former FDA and USDA food safety advisor. He revealed that ordering fish at the beginning of the week can actually increase your risk of food poisoning for a very simple reason.
Usually, fish markets are not open on weekends, which means your dinner can be in the fridge for two days before it reaches your table. Dr Detwiler said: “Fish that is not fresh can undergo chemical changes, leading to deterioration that affects its taste, smell and safety.”
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he further noted that damaged fish can also contain high levels of histamine, which is a chemical released by the immune system. This can lead to the food-borne disease scombroid poisoning, which causes the effects of allergic-like reactions including rash, sweating, diarrhea, headache and vomiting.
Although the risk of food poisoning is relatively low, the Royal Family is known to avoid eating shellfish while on duty, whether that’s abroad on an official foreign tour or during one of their daily interactions -correlation, to avoid the potential for disease.
“When dining, the Royal Family has to be careful with shellfish because of shellfish poisoning, because of their work schedules,” former royal butler Grant Harrold previously confirmed. “It is a very wise move to abandon the presence of seafood when out and about in public functions. We do not want a member of the Royal Family to have a serious reaction to food poisoning. Especially if [they] is on a trip abroad. So you don’t usually see it on the royal menu.”
However, rules are made to be broken, and both King Charles and Princess Kate have been seen bowing to this one from time to time as they go about their work. In 2013, Charles couldn’t hold back and helped himself to an oyster or two when visiting the Whitstable Oyster Festival in 2013, and Camilla had a napkin on hand in case things got a little messy.
Kate, when visiting the Bahamas in 2022 tried a local delicacy: a conch pistol – which, according to The Express “is generally said to be a male sea snail’s genitalia”. For the most part, though, royals tend to steer clear of shellfish just to be safe.
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