h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You don't know what you're getting when you eat unless you prepare it yourself. And especially when it's covered with mushroom sauce as this 'creation' was when I reflect on it now.
There are cases in the newspapers now and then where people have actually died from eating a piece of poisonous mushroom in such a sauce. So maybe it was the sauce and not the meat?

>If mad cow disease among humans is obtained by eating the meat of an infected animal how is it that we will not be able to contract disease from a cloned animal?

Mad cow disease is caused by a particular protein which happens to fold the wrong way. This misfolded protein, called a prion, has the ability to cause properly folded copies of the same protein to misfold in the same way (see A531776 ).

The misfolding can be due to a mutation in a gene that codes for a normal protein; however, the misfolded protein also has the ability to infect animals with a non-mutant gene with BSE. The way to avoid catching BSE from cloned animals is to not clone infected animals at all. We also shouldn’t eat infected non-cloned animals..

>also my understanding of cloning is that after a certain number of clones (the exact number escapes me) the pattern recognition deteriorates and makes further cloning not viable it would therefore not seem as sustainable as simple normal procreation where diversity is ensured and one would assume a lesser degree of biological problems created?

I’ve never heard anything like that.

>Is it possible to cook 'bad' meat sufficiently for it to be safe to eat?

For the most part, yes. Decent, thorough cooking will killmost infectious bacteria, and denature viruses and any toxins that might happen to be in the meat. However, there are a few (such as the Staphylococcus aureus toxin) which are buggeringly hard to destroy.

Also, prions are incredibly hard to destroy by heat.

No expert but a comment or two.

Bad meat - is that not why curries, chiles & strong tastes were developed? Thoroughly heated through to kill infective agents...

In general, iMho, 'tis not the GM foodstuffs per se that is worrisome (I tend to accept that they've been tested pretty well). No, folks, what gets me is any possible long term stuff. The last few posts, talking about weaknesses building up & so on don't affect me too much (until I read some more about it). What *Did* worry me with plants was that once any of the test crops had ripened, it was already too late.

Re 21 it seems that it's all too easy to get a poisonous mushroom that looks like very a champignon in your mushroom sauce. It's called a Death Cap http//www.naturalist.com/lbstr1. Hope that link is right!

>Bad meat - is that not why curries, chiles & strong tastes were developed? Thoroughly heated through to kill infective agents...

Sort of. To kill infectious agents, you have to heat the food with real heat, in the form of energy. Spciness won't affect the pathogens one way or the other.

Spices were first added to food that tasted nasty, but was perfectly safe to eat, in order to make it more appetising.

Apollyon - yep, that's what I was getting at... in the times curry etc was developed (in mainly hot countries?) it was indeed for bad tasting food, most likely bad meat. They didn't have prions & so on - by those names - or the knowledge of them.

I imagine they would have had prions, but just didn't know about them.

Surely the most efficient method of cloning meat is still by rubbing two animals together?

Rub two Boy Scouts together to start a fire you mean?

<<Bad meat - is that not why curries, chiles & strong tastes were developed? Thoroughly heated through to kill infective agents...>>

Basically they were created to make bad meat palatable, and this includes meat that has spoiled due to bacteria and even maggot infestations. When you're poor and starving, you don't have many options.

Interestingly, these things also have unique medicinal properties of their own. A581311

<>

Actually, you may not know what you're getting if you prepare it yourself, either. The general population has a food safety knowledge bordering on appallingly dangerous ignorance. You'd be amazed at how many people, for instance, cut vegetables for the salad on the same cutting board (and/or with the same knife) they just used on the chicken, after giving it a quick rinse. Or how many people have meat dripping onto produce in the refrigerator. Unless you've actually worked in the food service industry or watch cooking shows religiously, you'd probably never know the difference. And once you infect yourself, you'd be likely to blame it on bad meat, instead of bad habits.

I remember there was a case in the paper once about a kitchen worker in a restaurant who washed his feet in the same sink that the salad was washed in. That's probably relatively harmless compared to much of what goes on behind the scenes in some restaurants.
On the other hand it's amazing how many people have no idea about basic food storage and preparation. There was for example a corner shopkeeper who kept fireworks in open boxes on the same shelf as the bread in one town I had the pleasure of being a resident in for some years.

Blimey, imagine the opportunities for pre-made toast!

Go to Germany, they've been selling and eating it for years.

And a filling snack called Pferdleberkäse (Horse-liver-cheese). It's hot, pink and steamy and comes in a bun. You buy it at a stand like a hotdog stand. Germans are addicted to it.

There's an innuendo in that last post I'm sure

Personally I prefer a well grilled Bratwurst

Or a mint yoghurt smeared frikadellen.

Or Whiskey in the Jar from Metallica

If cloned meat is such a newsworthy issue what on earth is going to be the reaction when we have beef bushes and turkey trees?