A Japanese 10-year-old has become the youngest person authorised to prepare fugu pufferfish. This delicacy can kill someone if its poisonous parts are not properly removed (see graphic).
Primary school pupil Karin Tabira passed a special test this summer. This means that she is now certified to slice and gut the fish for eating.
She recently served a platter of paper-thin slices of raw fugu to the governor of the southern Kumamoto region. This is where Karin lives.
“I was happy when the governor said oishi,” she told reporters at an event. This word means delicious in Japanese.
Karin was one of 60 people who passed the test in the Yamaguchi region this summer. Most of them were professional chefs. There was a total of 93 people who tried.
Fugu is often served raw at high-end restaurants in Japan. Chefs in this country must hold a licence proving that they can safely slice around the fish’s organs that have a lethal poison.
Occasionally, people, who have no licence, die from eating fugu caught in the sea.
Yamaguchi does not have an age limit to take the fugu test. But in Kumamoto, Karin can only prepare fugu dishes when she is accompanied by a licensed adult.
Questions
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Why might it be dangerous to eat fugu?
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Why must chefs be licensed to prepare fugu?
