Food poisoning-an overview

What Food is food poisoning

Food poisoning results when you eat food contaminated with bacteria or other pathogens as parasites or viruses. Your symptoms may vary from upset stomach to diarrhea, fever, vomiting, abdominal cramps and dehydration. Most such infections go hands and unreported.

But the Center for disease control and prevention estimates that each year about 76 million people in the United States becomes ill from pathogens in food, and about 5 000 of them die.

Over caused 55% of cases of improper cooking and storing food, and 24% of poor hygiene, which do not wash your hands while preparing food. Only 3% of cases are from unsafe food sources. Keep hands clean while working with food is the single most important thing you can do to prevent food poisoning.

20 Organisms can cause food poisoning. When you eat food contaminated with the bacteria multiply in your stomach and intestines. Some bacteria produces a toxin when they multiply. As a result, cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Vomiting and diarrhea are the body's way of eliminating the toxin, and most cases of food poisoning runs its course without medical assistance.

Not all invasive organisms cause vomiting as a symptom, but almost all of them causing diarrhea. Blood in your stool comes in many types of food poisoning and is considered to be serious. Abdominal cramps are also common, and sometimes you will have a fever. Don't forget to contact a doctor if fever or bloody stools.

Common sources of food poisoning

Campylobacter is the leading cause of bacterial food poisoning in the United States. It causes several million cases per year, which resulted in hundreds of deaths. Eat chicken or pulpy food that has been in contact with raw chicken usually causes campylobacter. Center for Disease Control estimates that up to 70-90% of chickens infected with campylobacter.

To prevent the disease, to cook chicken, with some Pink remains. Wash hands often when handling raw chicken. Use paper towels for drying hands. If you are using a sponge or dish-cloth to clean the counter, use a fresh after working with raw chicken. Wash your cutting board with a diluted bleach solution before using again. And all the utensils or dishes with contact with raw chicken needs to be washed and rinsed with SOAP and water before using again.

E. coli 0157: H7 infection causes an estimated 25 000 cases of food poisoning each year in the United States. Most of these results from undercooked, contaminated ground beef. Organism lives in the intestines healthy cows. Meat can become contaminated during slaughter when intestinal fecal matter is mixed with beef is ground into hamburger. Contaminated meat looks and smells normal, so it is not easy to detect them. Bacteria of cow mastitis and milking machines can also contaminate raw milk.

Cooking all ground beef to prevent this form of food poisoning, until no Pink shows. Ensure that all meat sauces is clear, not pink or red, and that the inside of the meat is hot. If you are served a pulpy hamburger at a restaurant, send it back. Consume only pasteurized milk products and drink only water treated with chlorine or other disinfectants.

Botulism is caused by clostridium botulinum, the spore-forming bacteria. This form of food poisoning is very rare, but can be life-threatening. This can be caused by eating improperly processed, low-acidic foods such as green beans, mushrooms, spinach, olives, meat or fish. Incorrect home canning industry practices are often for botulism cases. Incorrect commercial products can also cause this serious disorder.

Canned foods that are soft, degraded, fermenting or not smell right to avoid botulism, not even taste. It is not worth a life-threatening illness. When in doubt, throw out.

Infant botulism is more common during the spring and summer, and is rare in winter. Infants younger than one year is the greatest risk. Symptoms are muscle weakness, a weak cry, difficulty feeding, constipation, head lag, increased heart rate and a reduction in the gag reflex. A baby with botulism is described as a "floppy baby", because the child will have weak muscles, particularly in the arms, legs and neck.

Infant botulism has been associated with eating honey. Center for Disease Control suggests that honey should not be given to infants younger than six months, and honey Industry Council extends border as security for a year. Honey is not an important food for infants, and should never be given to them.

Summary of food poisoning

Most symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhoea due to infection and are not real cases of food poisoning. An accurate diagnosis can be difficult because the pathogenic organisms are found in different types of food and have different incubation periods. In addition, eat a topic and get sick immediately afterwards not typical rate for food poisoning. Most people are not aware that food eaten several days earlier, can cause food poisoning. Always be sure to consult a doctor after experiencing severe gastrointestinal symptoms.

The information in this article were assembled on safety information on http://wellness.ucdavis.edu site and on the national digestive diseases information clearinghouse on http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/bacteria/index.htmsite