Is It Safe To Eat Food That Cockroaches Have Been On

Most people don’t like the thought of cockroaches near their food, but according to a study by soap manufacturers Procter & Gamble, most of you will.   Researchers found that cockroaches are much cleaner than most people realize. In fact, roaches spend nearly as much time keeping themselves clean as you do! Only 2% of the time is spent eating and 24% is spent resting in areas away from food (the rest is split between escaping danger and socializing).

Is It Safe To Eat Food That Cockroaches Have Been On

It can seem wasteful to throw food away if you find a roach in a large container. This can leave you wondering if it’s bad to eat food that a cockroach has crawled on. If you’re healthy and the roach left no discernable traces, surely it’ll be fine. However, this may not be the case.

Never eat food that cockroaches have touched. Roaches carry a host of bacteria and diseases because they eat and walk through decaying matter. When they crawl on your food, they can transfer allergens, illnesses, mold spores, decay, and poison. This can make you ill, especially if you’re in a vulnerable risk group. Symptoms include food poisoning, the flu, or diseases, like hepatitis.

With that said, people with strong immune systems can fight off the effects with no symptoms at all. That doesn’t negate the danger, however. If you find a roach in your food, don’t take the risk of eating it. Just dispose of it safely.

What Happens If A Roach Crawled On Your Food?

Following contact with your food, a roach may not affect it. Roaches are not inherently toxic or able to produce harmful substances from their bodies. However, they do consume rotting or unsanitary foods, which may include:

• Decomposing animal or insect bodies
• Poop
• Mold
• Dead skin cells
• Rotting food in your kitchen

In the process of walking through and consuming these materials, roaches become coated in the substances. They can carry around:

• Bacteria
• Fungus
• Viruses
• Allergens
• Spores

If a roach wanders through your dinner plate or weeds its way into your plastic Tupperware, then it may have smeared these substances all over your food. When you eat the contaminated food when it’s finished, you’re then ingesting the trace bits of poop, decay, or mold yourself.

Can I Eat Food Touched By a Cockroach?

Unless the roach pooped in the food, you likely wouldn’t notice that they’d been there. If you did happen to watch the roach scurry off your food, you might be conflicted. Why waste food? If you inspect the plate for signs of contamination and find none, will you be okay?

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to tell how much bacteria is left behind by a roach. Likewise, you can’t tell what types of bacteria or harmful substances are present. Unless you submit the food for inspection by a microbiologist, you’re out of luck. When you eat the food, you may never learn exactly what you’ve just put in your body.

For the average, healthy person with a strong immune system, you may be fine. Your body might be capable of fending off the bacteria, mold, or allergens that have just been introduced to your system. You may not experience any negative effects and continue your life as normal. However, that’s only one possible outcome. You can’t be sure how your body will react until it’s too late. This outcome is only possible if:

• The roach, by some miracle, is very clean.
• Your body can fend off the viral or bacterial infection.
• The types of contingents that infected your food are benign or more easily processed by your body.

If these factors – all three, or individually – are not present, you can get sick.

What Diseases Do Roaches Carry?

In a study published in the International Journal of Scientific Research, roaches were observed to carry various bacteria, parasites, and fungi strains.

The researchers even discovered that cockroaches transmitted exotic viruses, like hepatitis. The most common fallout you’ll experience from consuming a dirty cockroach (or food it’s touched) is an intestinal disease. These can include:

• Cholera
• Dysentery
• Typhoid fever

Those are the rarer and more extreme cases. For most people, you’ll notice a roach has contaminated you once you experience symptoms of:

• Food poisoning
• Flu, or flu-like symptoms
• Diarrhea and vomiting

It’s worth noting that cockroaches are not actively harmful but passively harmful. In the scientific world, they are referred to as ‘passive’ or ‘mechanical vectors.’ This means that, on their own, cockroaches do not contribute to illness and disease. As a matter of fact, many cultures worldwide eat roaches as part of their diet.

However, the roaches crawling in sinks and pantries are a different story. You can easily get sick from exposure to what these bugs carry.

Can You Die From Eating A Cockroach?

In heavily infested homes, a roach can get into your food without you noticing. However, eating a roach is no more dangerous than eating food that a roach has been on. It’s not good news, but you don’t need to panic. It does not mean certain and immediate death for three reasons:

• Rarely are intestinal diseases immediately fatal. You should have time to seek medical treatment.
• Cockroaches rarely carry untreatable illnesses. The substances that roaches walk through are not the type to contain untreatable diseases.
• Cockroaches are small and can only carry so much bacteria. While every bit counts, it’s unlikely to give you a fatal dose of anything.

It’s not impossible to die from eating a roach or food a roach has touched. The most important element is timing. If you do contract an illness and refuse to seek treatment, the condition can worsen. You are more likely to die from complications caused by the sickness rather than the sickness itself. You may also be in more danger if:

• Immunocompromised
• Elderly
• A child
• Allergic to cockroaches
• A preexisting condition that makes you vulnerable to illnesses
• Have asthma

Allergens, Asthma, And Children

According to Allergy, if a child is sensitive to cockroach allergens, they’re more likely to develop asthma than other children.

On their own, cockroaches can induce breathing difficulty, especially if you already have asthma. This is not only due to the bacteria on cockroaches but the exoskeletons themselves. This is only worsened for adults with existing allergies. Without asthma, a cockroach allergy may also cause a strong negative reaction. This could include:

• Difficulty breathing
• Shortness of breath
• Coughing
• Your skin breaking out in hives
• Swelling

Poison Bait And Bug Sprays

Commercial bug poison is known as lethal to humans. A roach may be covered in poison for two reasons:

• From baited traps, either in your home or a neighbor’s home (if the roach has traveled)
• Pest control methods, such as bug bombs or bug spray

If you ingest this poison second-hand through a roach, you may be in danger. The poison could rub off on your food as the insect traipses through it. If you consume the entire roach by accident, the dose may be even higher. Be sure to look for symptoms, as signs of poisoning include:

• Dizziness
• Lack of concentration
• Confusion
• Abdominal pain

Is It Safe To Eat Food That Cockroaches Have Been On

 

Cockroaches are ubiquitous, and there may be times when you find yourself wondering if it’s safe to eat food that roaches have been on. The answer is yes, but only if you follow some simple rules:

-Don’t eat anything that has clearly been in contact with a live roach.

-Don’t eat anything that looks like it has been chewed by a roach.

-Do not touch anything (including your own hands) without washing your hands thoroughly first.

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