A Little Hot Sauce on Oysters Can Kill What May Ail You

The habit of jazzing up raw oysters with a splash of spicy cocktail sauce might make good medical sense because it kills the germs, scientists say.

Most oyster eaters probably indulge in cocktail sauce because they like the taste. But a new report raises the possibility that it also could be a healthful thing to do.

One risk of eating raw oysters is the microbes in their digestive tracts. Oysters on the half shell are sometimes tainted with bacteria that can cause ailments ranging from mild diarrhea to dangerous blood poisoning.

Serious illness is rare. However, some restaurants have put up signs warning that this classic Gulf Coast appetizer might be hazardous to customers’ health. Especially worrisome is a variety of bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus, which can be fatal to people with liver disease and other underlying health problems.

Scientists are exploring many ways of making oysters safe, such as adjusting their storage temperature, heat shocking them and even zapping them with radiation. A team from the Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans decided to see if there was something people could add to oysters to kill germs.

They outlined their findings this week at a conference sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology.

The researchers said they experimented with the main ingredients of cocktail sauce--Tabasco and other Louisiana hot sauces, horseradish, lemon juice and ketchup.

‘Some of the findings were a little astonishing to us. We had no idea these condiments would be so powerful,” said Dr. Kenneth Aldridge, one of the researchers.

They found that hot sauce was the most potent. When dashed straight into a test tube of bacteria, it killed them all within a minute. Even diluted 16 to 1, it killed them within five minutes.

Horseradish and lemon juice worked moderately well; ketchup had little effect. They also tested three other varieties of vibrio bacteria, as well as E. coli , shigella and salmonella. Hot sauce killed them all.