New Zealand Health officials are warning liver lovers to cook their offal properly, after more than two dozen cases of food poisoning in Wellington. They are also working with restaurants and cafes, where use of organs and other cheap cuts of meat have had a resurgence, to ensure would-be chefs are cooking their grandmother’s lamb’s fry recipes to today’s food safety standards.
Campylobacter, a bacterium that causes stomach bugs, was found in undercooked poultry and lamb’s liver, Margot McLean of Regional Public Health said. Symptoms included diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fever, headache and vomiting.
Like chicken meat, lamb liver needs to be cooked long enough to kill any bacteria.
Most campylobacter victims are fine after a week, but some develop arthritis and on rare occasions people can develop the rare disease Guillain-Barre syndrome, which involves the immune system attacking the body’s nerves, resulting in paralysis that can last several weeks.