Puffer-fish salad proves toxic in Thailand

Three Thai villagers have been hospitalised after eating a papaya salad sprinkled with fermented puffer fish, media reports said Wednesday January 16. The villagers from Rayong province, on Thailand’s eastern coastline, were hospitalised Tuesday suffering from extreme nausea, diarrhoea, weakness and numbness, said The Nation newspaper.

All three victims had reportedly partaken of a “somtam,” Thailand’s famed spicy green-papaya salad, containing fermented puffer fish meat, on Sunday.

Public health officials found and confiscated four boxes of the fermented fish on sale at a local grocery shop.

Puffer fish is highly toxic if not prepared correctly.

 

Category: Thailand