You allergic? Don't eat insects, then

Dr Supan Srithamma cited the ministry's report of 118 people hospitalised with food-poisoning symptoms after eating fried insects from December 24, 2007, to January 7, 2008, in Sing Buri, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Trang, Songkhla, Surat Thani, Chai Nat, and Nakhon Ratchasima. Seventy-eight of them had to be sent to hospital, he added. Fried silk worms from Surat Thani were found to contain 875 milligrams of histamine per kilogram, against a standard maximum of 50.

A ministry study at Sa Keaw's Rong Kleu Market revealed vendors re-using oil to fry various insects over some four and a half hours, possibly causing toxic accumulation, said Dr Khamnuan Ungchusak, spokesman of the Disease Control Department. He said bacterial contamination during storage and transportation could also have caused the histamine build-up, and he urged that insects should be stored below 4.4 degrees Celsius before frying.