It was like playing Russian roulette. To this day, it is not known for sure what caused the vomiting, intense diarrhea and, in some cases, death after eating ice cream. Some blame it on “gorging on a variety of indigestible substances.”
The most it does nowadays is freeze our teeth — you can even feel the shiver in your brain — but the ice cream He was once a real serial killer.
If we go back to Victorian times, it is possible to witness reports of North Americans and English people suffering from vomiting, intense diarrhea and, in some cases, death, especially among children, after eating the delicious delicacy.
In the USA, remembers, the favorite ice cream of the wealthy classes was, of course, cream-based, the most expensive. But for the poorest, eggless ice cream, “Philadelphia” style, and cheaper flavored versions emerged, driven by the growth of the ice trade and sugar production. The problem was the hygiene of those first manual ice cream machines. Reusable glass containers were poorly cleaned, partially melted ice cream was refrozen, and bacteria were grateful.
Historian Edward Geist left some serious ice cream incidents. In 1854, at a festival in Beverly, Massachusetts, several people fell ill after consuming pineapple-flavored ice cream. Doctors initially blamed the butyric ether additivesderived from butter, and used to intensify flavor. Others blamed the dyes, which were often contaminated with arsenic. And although these additives quickly fell into disuse, poisoning episodes continued.
In the 1870s, many cases were attributed to the so-called “vanillin poisoning”, a phenomenon that intrigued doctors, as it only occurred with ice cream, and not with other products that used the same artificial essence.
Despite the serious cases, people loved ice cream so much that they couldn’t stop eating it. Some experts suggested that the real cause of the problems was simply the excess consumption. Physician JW Kales of Franklinville, New York, noted that at ice cream festivals “each person delights in gorging himself and his ‘best company,’ not only on ice cream, cakes, and sweets, but on a variety of indigestible substances.”
In the 1880s, new theories emerged. Some researchers began to point to ptomaines – compounds produced by bacteria during the decomposition of tissues – as the possible cause of the poisonings. Microbiology was still in its early stages, and this hypothesis turned out to be insufficient, but it had a practical effect: it stimulated improvements in the production and handling of dairy products.
Even today, it is not known for sure what caused all these episodes of ice cream poisoning. Edward Geist suggests that the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus was likely the culprit in many cases, although other microorganisms or intentional adulteration of products may also have contributed.
In England, the situation was aggravated by the system of “penny licks”: small glass cups shared, the cup was licked and returned without any proper washing. The practice was only banned in London in 1899, after years of easy spread of disease.
