14 mars 2023
Raw food has several virtues for your health: what are they? And how to avoid any risk of contamination, especially for meat and fish? Details.
Zero cooking preserves vitamins, minerals, nutrients, enzymes, essential fatty acids and amino acids otherwise destroyed by cooking. The nutritional properties of fruits, vegetables or even meat and fish are thus improved. Food aromas are also preserved by zero cooking. Not to mention that raw food encourages chewing: the work of the jaws and saliva promotes good absorption of the food bolus and allows better digestion. The feeling of satiety is favored: by feeling better satiated, we avoid eating more than necessary.
For the greenest among us, raw food has the advantage of reducing the ecological footprint of meals as much as possible, since no energy is used to cook or reheat them.
Organic products and vegetable bin
Still, the consumption of fruit juices, vegetable sticks, tartars or carpaccios must be associated with a good dose of precautions. Cooking has the power to destroy pathogenic germs and at the same time prevent us from food poisoning. It is moreover to protect oneself from this fetal contamination (exposure to the bacterium listeria monocytogenes should be avoided to prevent listeriosis) that pregnant women must deprive themselves of all raw food for 9 months.
For a carpaccio or a tartare, do not hesitate to inform your butcher or your fishmonger that you intend to consume their products raw. For all foods, choose organic: a particularly interesting choice in the fruit and vegetable section, especially if you want to eat the skin. This does not deprive you of a good cleaning with clear water. It is also advisable to store fruits and vegetables in the tray provided for this purpose, in a separate bag to isolate them from other foodstuffs as they can contaminate them (especially those pushed into the ground) “, continues the Ministry in charge of Agriculture.
Another tip: eat meat and fish the same day to avoid any risk of bacterial proliferation, even if they are kept cool.
Special raw fish
If you plan to eat your catch of the day raw, know that ” fish products must be stored in the coldest part of the refrigerator, at a maximum temperature of +4°C “recalls the ministry. ” Recreational fishing products (on line, for example) must be kept in a cooler with melting ice or an accumulator (equivalent to T°<+4°C). »
Finally, there is a risk of contamination by anisakis, parasites present in wild raw fish only destroyed by cooking, causing serious intestinal infections. How to guard once morest it? By freezing ” fish intended to be eaten raw or marinated in salt, lemon or herbs. Freezing for 48 hours at -20°C, practiced by a professional, or 7 days in a domestic freezer (-18°C), is sufficient to eliminate the parasite “, underlines the ministry. It is also advisable to make thin slices [pour] check its quality ».
To note : the consumption of raw foods is not recommended if you have fragile intestines, for pregnant women therefore, but also for children, the elderly and/or immunocompromised. To preserve the nutritional quality of your ingredients as much as possible, it is better to favor cooking on a plancha or steam. The most degrading techniques for nutritional quality remain barbecue and frying.
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Source : Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, accessed March 2023
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Written by : Laura Bourgault – Edited by: Emmanuel Ducreuzet
