Banned: Fugu — A Delicacy 1,500 Times More Poisonous Than Cyanide
The fish too deadly for emperors, royalty and the shogunate
Japanese Pufferfish, or fugu as its called in Japanese, is perhaps the most infamous banned food in the world. Fugu has almost become the poster child of banned food, exemplarily of our strange obsession with eating food that could and does prove deadly.
A history of eating fugu
There is evidence to suggest that humans have been eating fugu since at least 2,600BC. It was a popular dish in East Asia, but most notably Japan, which remains the centre of fugu consumption to this day.
They range in size from tiny dwarf pufferfish only a few inches long, to the monstrous 2 feet long giant pufferfish and are usually found in tropical and subtropical waters. As one might expect from their name, they are known to ‘puff up’ when threatened, ingesting massive amounts of water and air, rendering them virtually inedible, while also making them appear more threatening.
Like a good deal of other animals, their toxicity comes from their diet, which consists of snails…
