The last thing you want to happen when your food is being served is for it to fly off your plate and land on the floor.
You’ve seen the headline and you know exactly what’s going to happen; the exact moment some meat appears to be crawling right off the plate is captured in the video below.
Of course, this quickly drew similarities to the realm of The Walking Dead, but luckily the zombie apocalypse didn’t start because someone ate the meat that was still squirming on the plate.
While it’s normal to scream in horror when your food lifts off the plate and wanders off on its own, that hasn’t stopped people from freaking out.
Fortunately, there’s a plausible explanation for everything that doesn’t involve the “dead rising,” and even if it did signal the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, you’d be relieved that Patient Zero was just a piece of meat unable to bite into anything.
The source of the prolonged twitching of this particular cut of meat after death appears to be that it is a fresh cut of meat that has been exposed to a large amount of salt.
After a bit of fact-checking, Snopes found that the meat’s neurons were still firing, suggesting it was responding to the sodium ions present in the soy sauce and salt.
The result is that the meat looks alive and squirms like a zombie because the salt exposure causes the remaining muscles in the meat to contract even though it is dead.
They also said that the frog in the video provided the meat, which explains why it was so outraged that it was killed and served.
They speculated that the video may have come from a restaurant that serves ‘ikizukuri’, a dish that involves the preparation of live seafood.
Although this is usually done for fish, frogs can also undergo this procedure.Â
This might have been the very event that made the “zombie” flesh appear to be moving, so there you have it.
Here, free will has been replaced by mindless mechanical activation of processes that will eventually become worthless and be absorbed, giving another creature only a few hours of energy before it needs to be consumed again.
The disturbing sight of meat seemingly moving on its own may have caused fear and confusion, but the explanation behind it is far less sinister than it first appears. While the initial reaction might conjure up images of a zombie apocalypse, the reality is much more mundane. Meat jerking can be attributed to the physiological response of muscle tissue to salt, specifically sodium ions from soy sauce or salt itself. This phenomenon causes the residual neurons in the flesh to react, creating a terrifying illusion of life.
In addition, the frog used in the dish may have undergone a preparation similar to “ikizukuri” where live seafood is served, adding to the disturbing appearance. This practice, while typically reserved for fish, can be extended to other animals, adding to the drama of the presentation.
Ultimately, this special event serves as a reminder of the fascinating and sometimes bizarre ways in which biological processes can be observed. While this may have startled guests, it is a testament to the complexity of life and the effects of chemical reactions on muscle tissue. The real bottom line is that no matter how disturbing it may seem, there is often a straightforward scientific explanation behind what might at first appear to be something otherworldly.