# Can I eat that "raw"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-that-raw/653114>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 16, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-that-raw/653114 "2013-03-16T19:40:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-that-raw/653114/1 "2013-03-16T19:40:24Z")

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Post your dumb such questions here.

So corn beef in a can…safe to just slice and slap on bread?

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**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-that-raw/653114/2 "2013-03-16T19:43:37Z")

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Yup. It’s the beef equivalent of Spam.

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**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-that-raw/653114/3 "2013-03-16T19:49:53Z")

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I’m unaware of anything in a can that’s not ok to just eat without cooking. A lot of it may be better when heated, but since it’s cooked as part of the canning process, it ain’t exactly raw.

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**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-that-raw/653114/4 "2013-03-16T21:32:42Z")

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I had a college roommate who would eat Dinty Moore Beef Stew straight from the (unheated) can. It was gross, but it didn’t kill him.

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**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-that-raw/653114/5 "2013-03-16T22:21:37Z")

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Anything in a can is cooked to within an inch of its life to kill all microorganisms in the food. That’s why it’s in a can. If you put raw meat in a can and sealed it without cooking it, the food would putrefy.

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**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-that-raw/653114/6 "2013-03-16T23:30:57Z")

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> [@grude](#):
>
> Post your dumb such questions here.
> 
> So corn beef in a can…safe to just slice and slap on bread?

since the part about canned food has been addressed, you can eat most things raw that you can already eat cooked. much of the caution about eating things like raw meat have more to do with the conditions the animals have been kept in and the sanitation of the processing.

a notable exception is beans. many of the beans we typically buy dry _need_ to be boiled for a certain amount of time to break down toxins. If you decided to nosh on some raw kidney beans you wouldn’t be doing too well afterward.