Can alcohol prevent food poisoning?
I was on vacation this summer with some friends. At one point we bought and shared a large oyster platter. We were 5 people and all ate a lot, but a few hours later 4 of us got some serious food poisoning (we suspect the oysters since that was the first time that day we all ate at the same restaurant). The one guy who didn't get ill had been drinking heavily during the dinner, having even smuggled in a half-litre bottle of rum which he drank completely during the dinner. He claimed that he didn't get sick because all of that alcohol would have killed any bacteria in his stomach (which might very well be true, since I'm pretty sure the alcohol content of his stomach at the end of that dinner must have been around 20%).
Now, I am really curious; could you avoid food poisoning when eating bad oysters by drinking unhealthy amounts of hard liquor at the same time? Feels kinda iffy, but if there's a chance it'd work I might try it (since I love oysters, but hate food poisoning and would happily get smashed every time I eat them if it means protection).
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I assume the presupposition is that alcohol can be used as a disinfectant and therefore, can, if ingested, killed microbes that are also ingested during a meal for example - that might lead to 'food poisoning' such as Salmonella, for example.
A quick search for me, illustrated two key pieces of literature on the matter of alcohol preventing food poisoning.
In 2002, a Spanish group of Public Health doctors published potentially positive findings on the effects of alcohol on foodborne infectious outbreaks: here
In 1992 - there was also a look at The protective effect of alcohol on the occurrence of epidemic oyster-borne hepatitis A: here which showed that providing ABV was >10%, there was a protective effect.
There may well be more studies than this.
To me - these represent small studies that provide an interesting assertion - but ultimately larger studies would be needed to confirm that alcohol may have some protective effect from food-borne infectious disease. This would be impossible to do in humans however, due to the need for ethical approval to infect people with such pathogens +/- alcohol!
The topic is broad and not easy to answer as it depends on the alcohol concentration, the evolution of the specific pathogen of resistance to alcohol lethality (that a type of Salmonella for example has shown (here), the pathogen itself (as 'food poisoning' is a very very broad term).
I hope this is somewhat informative. It in no way promotes 'getting smashed' when eating Oysters though!
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