TORONTO -- While it seems hard to imagine the warning is necessary, Health Canada is urging people to limit their consumption of lobster tomalley - the green goo most people quickly scrap away as they get ready to sink their teeth into succulent lobster meat.
Turns out the tomalley, which serves as a liver and pancreas for a lobster, can sometimes contain a toxin known as paralytic shellfish poison. If ingested in large amounts, the toxin can cause tingling and numbing of the arms and legs, headaches, dizziness and nausea. In rare cases paralysis, respiratory difficult and even death can occur, if medical help isn't procured.
Adults should limit themselves to the tomalley of no more than two lobsters a day, the department warns, while one a day should be the limit for children.
Eeew. Eeew. Eeew.
TORONTO -- While it seems hard to imagine the warning is necessary, Health Canada is urging people to limit their consumption of lobster tomalley - the green goo most people quickly scrap away as they get ready to sink their teeth into succulent lobster meat.
Turns out the tomalley, which serves as a liver and pancreas for a lobster, can sometimes contain a toxin known as paralytic shellfish poison. If ingested in large amounts, the toxin can cause tingling and numbing of the arms and legs, headaches, dizziness and nausea. In rare cases paralysis, respiratory difficult and even death can occur, if medical help isn't procured.
Adults should limit themselves to the tomalley of no more than two lobsters a day, the department warns, while one a day should be the limit for children.