When Peter Richardson was five years old, he says local butchers used to hand out free sausages to children in the neighbourhood "to keep them quiet".
But rather than taking them home to be cooked, Peter simply ate them raw - and 50 years later he still enjoys nothing more than sucking the meat out and wrapping the skin around his finger before discarding it.
The dad-of-four's food habit recently went viral after partner Kate Chalmers shared videos of Peter tucking into his favourite snack, horrifying commenters who say that he could get "food poisoning or worms".
And although Peter, from Boston in Lincolnshire, warns others not to try it, he says he has never been made ill despite eating more raw sausages than he can remember.
Get the news you want straight to your inbox. Sign up for a Mirror newsletter here.
He said: "It might be disgusting to some people but I enjoy it. I wouldn't encourage people to go around eating raw sausages but in 50 years I've never had any issues.
"It all started when the butcher used to come with the van and they just used to give you a sausage to shut you up.
"Even though she's 86, my mum still does it now when she's cooking. I've never had worms or anything like that.
"I would never eat a raw supermarket sausage but it's from our local butcher and they used to slaughter our animals so I know the supply chain is short.
"I know there is a risk with eating raw pork but people smoke and drink alcohol. I enjoy the taste so I calculate that risk and reward.
"The old skins were natural skins and I used to eat them but I don't like the synthetic ones as much because they're more chewy.
"During BBQ season I will eat loads of raw sausages while I'm cooking for other people. I couldn't begin to put a number on how many I've eaten over the years."
His partner of eight years, Katie, says at first she found the habit "disgusting" but is now completely used to it.
"He's a handsome man so I can put up with this quirk," she said.
"We know the butcher, we know their hygiene standards, everything. He's been doing it since he was five or six, so around 50 years now.
"Peter's ironically a really fussy eater. He's very much a meat and potatoes man.
"When we first started seeing each other he wouldn't eat salad. He'd even pick the lettuce and tomato out of a BLT. But raw sausage isn't a problem for him.
"I have tried the raw sausage because I felt I couldn't preach to him to try foods like rice if I hadn't tried his quirky tastes.
"Psychologically it's grim to me but taste wise it's similar to pate, which I like. I'm not prepared to take it up as a full time snack.
"Every time I go to the butchers this happens.
"I have to cook the two pounds of sausages on the day that I buy them. I can't wait to cook them the next day otherwise he will have eaten them all raw. That used to happen all the time.
"We've got a two-year-old son called Joseph. He's not allowed to eat raw sausage however I have caught him helping himself to raw bacon out of the fridge. It must be like father like son."
The clip showing Peter choosing a sausage from the baking tray before they go into the oven and tucking in has racked up more than 600,000 views on TikTok, with Katie captioning it: "Pete choosing his favourite after work snack."
Most viewers were sickened by the sight, but a few others admitted to sharing the same guilty pleasure.
One person commented: "To say I gagged watching this would be an understatement."
And a second wrote: "Say hello to worms and tape worms."
However, a third admitted: "I used to do that when I was young" and another added: "Oh thank god, I thought I was the only one."
