Why is relying on casually collected garden snails often deemed riskier than consuming commercially farmed specimens?
Answer
The risk of unknown environmental contamination cannot be ruled out in wild specimens.
The primary safety differential lies in source certainty. A dedicated commercial farm maintains complete control over the snail's environment and diet from birth, theoretically eliminating exposure to external contaminants and pathogens. Conversely, a home harvester collecting snails from a garden cannot definitively rule out exposure to chemical treatments applied recently or the presence of parasites, meaning a wild specimen carries an assumption of risk that controlled farming significantly mitigates.
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