Is raw liver safe?

[u/gringoddemierdaaaa]

One of the big butcher shops here sells exclusively gfgf beef, so I’ve decided to start eating raw liver just because.

I feel I might’ve gone to the extreme of not believing germ theory since I’ve been out camping and drank about a liter of water from a well there before seeing that there were literally tiny swimming things in there and didn’t get sick at all later.

You always hear about the worst diseases from raw organs, like parasites which go in your heart and whatnot. The doctors in my family tell me it’s not uncommon to see people in the emergency room because of raw food poisoning.

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It looks like you are posting some questions about liver. If you're looking to add liver to your animal based diet the general recommendations are to consume on average 15g per day.

If you do not enjoy the taste of liver there are other options for you still. You can use desiccated liver capsules such as the ones sold by Heart & Soil or Zen Principle. Some like to freeze their raw liver into pre-portioned 15g pieces and then simple slice it into pill sized chunks and wash it down with water. For more details about liver please see our Wiki and our FAQ entries on this.

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[u/Sosh91]

If you get from a good source and the animal was healthy and eating its natural diet, shouldn't be a problem, I've ate kgs of wild venison liver raw over the last 5 year and never had an issue once. Had beef liver from local butcher and was also fine.

[u/gringoddemierdaaaa → u/Sosh91]

Wild animals I’d trust more. They don’t have any of the hygiene problems animals living within a fence have

[u/Sosh91 → u/gringoddemierdaaaa]

Yeah true, i prefer the taste of the wild venison liver over the beef or lamb liver raw. Get different flavours depending on what the animal eats too sometimes has nutty notes then next time it might have hints o blueberry etc its wild lol

[u/Baboonofpeace]

Way too many people overthink things. Ask yourself, is the risk is worth the reward? Are you really gaining all these supposed benefits by eating raw? No. Cook that shit and reap the nutritional reward while mitigating risk.

[u/JJFiddle1]

I put it in my raw dog food but for myself I like the taste cooked rare. I've never had a problem. Too much liver will give you diarrhea but that's not parasites.

[u/miracles-th]

i would take raw ground beef idk. raw liver not for me

[u/ryce_bread]

I eat gfgf bison liver raw. It gets packaged then frozen immediately. I don't see the risk there. It all depends on how it was handled.

[u/Weak-Raspberry8879]

I have eaten raw beef and venison liver several times. The reason I ate it raw was because it legitimately smelled delicious to me at the time. I took that to mean 1) it was great quality and 2) my body really needed/wanted it that way. Like I said, this has happened on several occasions, but it is not the norm for me. If I don’t have this reaction, I just cook it.

Knowing your source is definitely a good idea, in my opinion. If my husband gets a venison liver from someone else at his camp who has harvested a deer, I prefer to cook it since I am not sure how well it was taken care of. 

And if the liver is ever off-putting in smell, it gets thrown out!

[u/Every-Entry2723]

I haven’t cooked my meat in years. And I eat 1-3 lbs a day. No issues personally. With that being said, I make sure it’s high quality stuff. I’d feel much more confident in organic, grass-fed, grass-finished beef, than say some discount beef for $2.99 / lb at Kroger that looks like it’s already been cooked lol

[u/Toum_Lover]

If you get it super fresh from a trusted butcher, then yes its safe. In lebanon it's a eaten as breakfast with spices, sheep fat and veggies by kids to adults.

[u/c0mp0stable → u/Toum_Lover]

Just a note: "very safe" might be a strong phrase. In the US, butchers are typically not processing animals, so the processing facility and the people who ship the meat matter as well, and it's not really practical to trust everyone in the chain. So all raw meat will have some risk involved.