A food taster is a person that eats food to be served to someone else to confirm that it is safe to eat and does not contain toxins or poisons. The person to whom the food is going to be served is usually an important person, like an emperor or monarch, or anyone that could possibly be under threat of assassination or harm. A toxin, in a scientific context, is a biologically produced substance that causes injury to the health of a living thing on contact or absorption, typically by interacting with biological macromolecules such as enzymes and receptors. ... The skull and crossbones symbol traditionally used to label a poisonous substance. ... An emperor is a (male) monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. ... A monarch is a type of ruler or head of state, whose titles and ascent are often inherited, not earned, and who represents a larger monarchical system which has established rules and customs regarding succession, duties, and powers. ... Jack Ruby murdered the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in a very public manner. ...

The safety of the food is determined by observing whether or not the food taster subsequently becomes ill. Food tasting would not be effective against slow-acting poisons that take a long time to show any visible symptoms. The term symptom (from the Greek syn = con/plus and pipto = fall, together meaning co-exist) has two similar meanings in the context of physical and mental health: A symptom can be a physical condition which shows that one has a particular illness or disorder (see e. ...

See also

• Assassination
• Beefeater
• Food poisoning
• List of poisonings