Ackee Poisoning

[RyanP]

Hi, all. I was just wondering if anyone on here has ever gotten sick from eating ackee, and if it is something that I really need to be concerned with. I was up last night looking up how to pronounce ackee, and I noticed that it is poisonous when picked before it is ripe. Still looking around this morning, and saw that about a year ago there was an outbreak of ackee poisoning, including 30-something deaths, in Jamaica. Just wanting to know others opinions on eating this fruit while in Jamaica.

[yetta]

Ackee is wonderful! Don't miss out on trying it. Traditionally, it is served with salt fish yet I prefer a more "ital" style ...using veggies rather than fish. Apparently, there are problems if eaten before it is ripe. But, it is very easy to see when it is ripened. It opens up with the beautiful yellow and black seeds. I've been eating it every trip (over 26) and have never had a problem. Matter of fact, in all my trips....never had any food poisoning, etc.....Jamaican cooks are truly very particular about serving their food.

Have a wonderful time and enjoy all the local foods.

[MissBlue]

As long as you don't try to pick and cook it yourself, i think you'll have no problems. i eat it all the time there; i've always trusted that local cooks know what they're doing, and so far in 25 years i've been correct, that the people know what they're doing with preparing/cooking the ackee correctly.

i was reading up on the unusually high number of instances of ackee poisoning from last year and it seems to be an anomaly, some are theorizing that it might be related to the unusually cold previous winter delaying the typical ripening cycle of the pods.

-info from a few articles i came across:

"health officials believe the recent cold weather which affected the country coupled with a delay in the opening of the ackee fruit may have contributed to the present spike in the cases."

"We do have some theories and hypothesis," said Dr Lewis-Fuller. "We had very cold weather during December and there are theories surrounding the delayed opening of the ackee and, therefore, persons might have been stimulated to do their own thing with opening the ackee."

[Kentroy]

curious coincidence. awhile ago there was a convo discussing something similar on another message board, asking if any of us growing up in jamaica had ever encountered another who had been poisoned.

consensus was "no."

with respect to the pronunciation, heh. way back arsenio hall asked shabba about playing hockey in jamaica; shabba did bend up feem face and said "in jamaica we don't play hockey, we eat hockey..."

[yetta]

Kentroy....That is hilarious!!!

[irieworld]

that is funny.

[Rambo]

2010 23 people died from Ackee........from Gleaner http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ead/lead8.html