With all this talk of grilling outdoors, picnics in parks, road trips and other reasons for food to be served in less-than-sterile conditions, we’d be remiss not to at least briefly mention food poisoning. If you’ve ever had it, and you probably have once in your life, your skin just crawled. Sorry.
Below are our eight favorite causes of gastrointestinal upset, tingling in the extremities and other symptoms of food gone terribly, terribly wrong — and how to avoid them. Spoiler alert: A lot of it has to do with the basic washing and refrigerating of stuff.
1. Campylobacter enteritis
A common bacterial infection producing severe gastrointestinal upset that can hang around as long as two weeks. It’s rarely fatal in healthy people.
The culprits:
Food boune botulism takes place when you eat food containing the toxin and it disrupts nerve function, causing paralysis. The source of the food-borne botulism is often by foods that were canned or preserved at home. Many people pick fruits and vegetables from the garden in the summer months and jarred them so they can eat them during the winter months. These foods
These single celled tube-like organism finds a home in the gut of every human during their lifetime. If the person affected does not have the proper bacterial flora to balance Clostridium difficle, the bacteria will manifest itself. The bacteria produces a toxin that breaks down the outer and inner linings of the small and large intestine causing the condition, Clostridium difficle Colitis. The impaired intestine will cause the body to have up to 20 bowel movements a day. The bowel matter will eventually turn to water and blood, causing extreme malnourishment and dehydration. The bacterial infection, if not intervened will cause morbidity. According to Roos (2015), the CDC reported there are half- million cases and thirty-thousand deaths each year in the United States. Clostridium difficle is one of the world’s leading causes of deaths in assisted living facilities (Roos,
is often less dramatic or severe than other symptoms, such as unexplained nausea or vomiting,
In my setting, food is prepared, stored and cooked hygienically. Kitchen area is clean all the time and anyone handling foods have “Food & Safety Certificate” and good personal hygiene. Anyone handling food washes her/his hands with hot water and soap before touching any
According to Aziz (2013), “C difficile is a spore-forming, Gram-positive anaerobic bacillus that is the most common cause of diarrhea in hospitalized patients” (p.1). C diff. infection occur when a patient is being treated with an anti-biotic for a particular disease and this anti-biotic depletes the number of good bacteria to an extent that it creates an environment suitable for an opportunist pathogen like a fungi or bacteria to take over and infect the patient with a different type of illness. In hospitalized patients, especially those who are taking a lot of antibiotics, normal bacteria in their guts can be killed and in this case leaving C-diff to multiply and cause an infection. Diarrhea and stomach cramps are one of the symptoms of C.diff infection. I some cases serious inflammation of the colon can also occur. The infection can be acute or chronic which means that the infection can last 2-3weeks or more. Isolating infected patients helps to reduce the spread of this infection to other patients in the hospital. Health care workers should also use the appropriate protective equipment to assess the isolation rooms and have these patients not
I only use foods that have not expired. Handling raw meat, I wipe countertops that may have come into contact, cleaned utensils, cutting boards, and washed my hands after contact with raw meat. I rinse all produce of visible soil and dirt to minimize risk of pathogens prior to cooking or eating. I am careful with eggs as my method of cracking them on the side of the pan has a slight risk of eggshell consumption, a source of foodborne illness. With meats, I try to cook chicken thoroughly to eliminate infectious bacteria. I often eat raw vegetables after I clean them. With steak, I often eat medium rare thinking that the external surfaces contain the highest risk of contamination while the inside, has less inherent risk. With ground beef, this need to get cooked through as more of the meat surface is potentially exposed to bacteria, and the grinding causes bacteria to be mixed throughout the
Make sure you stick to these guide lines. (Eat food that is cooked and served hot, eggs that are hard-cooked, Fruits and Veggies you have washed in clean water or peeled yourself, and pasteurized dairy products.) Don’t eat (food that is served at room temperature or from street venders, don’t eat raw or soft-cooked runny eggs, raw or undercooked rare meat or fish, unwashed or unpeeled fruits and veggies, unpasteurized dairy products or “bushmeat” for example (monkeys, bats or other wild game.)(Drink bottled water that is sealed, water that has been disinfected, carbonated drinks, hot coffee or tea or pasteurized milk, donk drink tap or well water don’t make ice or juice with it either, or unpasteurized milk.) (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2016, from
Prevention: Cook all poultry products thoroughly. Make sure that the meat is cooked throughout (no longer pink) and any juices run clear. All poultry should be cooked to reach a minimum internal temperature of 165°F. If you are served undercooked poultry in a restaurant, send it back for further cooking. Wash hands with soap before preparing food Wash hands with soap after handling raw foods of animal origin and before touching anything else. Prevent cross-contamination in the kitchen by using separate cutting boards for foods of animal origin and other foods and by thoroughly cleaning all cutting boards, countertops, and utensils with soap and hot water after preparing raw food of animal origin. Do not drink unpasteurized milk or untreated surface water. Make sure that persons with diarrhea, especially children, wash their hands carefully and frequently with soap to reduce the risk of spreading the infection. Wash hands with soap after contact with pet
A bacterium commonly found in the intestines of humans and other animals, where it usually causes no harm. Some strains can cause severe food poisoning, especially in old people and
Campylobacter infection is primarily a zoonotic disease as it is a commensal of food animals, particularly poultry, which serves as the main reservoir for human infection [7]. Other sources of transmission, include water, milk, and food animal meat products [8]. The disease characteristics vary from watery, non-bloody, non-inflammatory diarrhea to a severe inflammatory diarrhea followed by abdominal pain and fever [9]. Amongst
The illness may develop over a period of hours, or it may start suddenly with stomach cramps, vomiting, or diarrhea.
Campylobacter jejuni is a gram-negative spiral pathogen. Most commonly, it can be found in chicken guts or animal feces due its nature to thrive in environments with reduced levels of oxygen. According to the World Health Organization in 2013, the said bacteria is the leading cause of foodborne diseases in the United States. This is most often times due to the consumption of undercooked poultry, most especially chicken. It is known that an infection called Campylobacteriosis, as well as the dreaded gastroenteritis, can be contracted from being exposed to C. jejuni, and it commonly brings about a range of food poisoning symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting, and dysentery syndrome.
Pancolitis. Affects the entire colon and causes severe bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps and pain, fatigue, and significant weight loss.
Restaurants in particular, have to be very cautious to prevent their customers from being served contaminated food. Not properly handling meat or cross contaminating can cause food-borne illnesses or even death. A story reported in 2013 described an incident where 80 people became sick from improperly handled food (FoxNews, 2013). Their report demonstrates how easy it can be for people to get sick if food is not handled correctly. One of the most important parts to handling meat, is figuring out the safest way to thaw meat in order to prevent bacteria and disease from growing before cooking it. Although the bacteria is killed when heated above a certain temperature, it can still cause harm if not properly handled. This experiment will test the different possible methods of thawing meat to prevent disease and bacteria from spreading before
Infectious disease that causes severe watery diarrhoea which could lead to dehydration and death if left untreated.