Common Factors Contributing to Food Poisoning
Food poisoning can be defined as:
“An acute (arising suddenly and of short duration) gastroenteritis
caused by the ingestion of food.” – www.food.gov.uk
Food poisoning is characterized by the following symptoms:
· Abdominal Pain
· Diarrhoea
· With or without vomiting
· With or without fever
Major problems with food poisoning occur in the very young, the very
elderly and those with otherwise reduced immunological defences. The
major problem is with dehydration and loss of electrolytes and is a
main cause of infant and child mortality in the developing world.
Some authors exclude food-borne illness that are caused by primary
human pathogens (that are adapted to the human host) from their
definition of food poisoning, examples include Salmonella Typhoid and
Dysentery caused by Shigella Dysenteriae. The term ‘food poisoning’ is
reserved for those diseases produced by bacterial exotoxins, for
example this would include Staphylococcus Aureus and Clostridium
Perfringens but would exclude Salmonella. – (Garbutt 1997)
Campylobacter Jejuni is the most common cause of food poisoning. It
is a gram-negative organism with an incubation period commonly of 3-5
days.
Contamination
Live tissue in animals is essentially sterile with but it is during
food preparation that it can become contaminated at any stage of the
process. The most critical stages are skinning and evisceration as it
is the hide and the intestines that contain the animal’s micro-flora
along with organisms present in faeces and soil. Abattoir hygiene
must be kept to a very high ...
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...emain infected for weeks, sometimes months.
Pests
Pests such as flies, cockroaches, mice, rats and birds all carry food
poisoning organism. Careful effort must be made to ensure any food
storage or preparation area is pest free. Methods of prevention can
include rodent traps and UV fly killers. Salmonella is naturally
found in the intestine of most animals, domestic or wild, including
mammals, birds and insects. It is excreted in large numbers in faeces
and can remain viable for years within the faecal material.
Bibliography
Essentials of Food Microbiology
John Garbutt, Arnold (1997)
Human Nutrition – A Health Perspective
Mary. E. Barasi 2003 – Arnold (2003)
Human Nutrition and Dietetics
Garrow, James & Ralph – Churchill Livingstone (2004)
www.food.gov.uk
www.bromley.gov.uk
Michael Pollan, an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism (Michael Pollan), writes in his book In Defense of Food, the dangers of nutritionism and how to escape the Western diet and subsequently most of the chronic diseases the diet imparts. In the chapter “Nutritionism Defined” Pollan defines the term nutritionism. Pollan’s main assertion being how the ideology of nutritionism defines food as the sum of its nutrients, and from this viewpoint Pollan goes on to write how nutritionism divides food into two categories, with each macronutrient divided against each other as either bad or good nutrients, in a bid for focus of our food fears and enthusiasms. Finally, Pollan concludes that with the relentless focus nutritionism places on nutrients and their interplay distinctions between foods become irrelevant and abandoned.
Food-borne botulism was the first form of the botulism toxin to be identified. It has a very high morbidity with prolonged intensive health care required for a full recovery (Taillac, & Kim, 2010). Also, people who have been infected with food-borne botulism can sometimes have muscle weakness or other similar issues for up to a year after the first onset of symptoms. Food-borne botulism is typically caused by improperly canned food. The symptoms of food-borne botulism include, but are not limited to: double vision...
Why is there not more of an up stir being caused by the rates of avoidable food-borne illness? Perhaps it doesn't seem obvious that something is wrong simply because it happens all the time. With 76 million cases of food-borne illness that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have estimated happen in America each year, meat infected by pathogens “fading into the background” does not seem probable. (2010). In reality, most didn't "catch a bug" so much as eat a bug. And in all likelihood, that bug was created by factory farming.
Diseases: The most common health concern associated with S. aureus is food poisoning caused by the release of enterotoxins, even in small doses, into food. Release of less than 1 microgram of toxin is sufficient to contaminate food enough to illicit symptoms of food poisoning. The infective dose of toxin is generally present when food is contaminated with an excess of 100,000 bacteria per gram of food. The intensity and variety of symptoms resulting from S. aureus food poisoning differ from individual to individual, but some of the most common symptoms are nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, and prostration (complete physical or mental exhaustion). It usually takes 2 or 3 days to recover from S. aureus food poisoning, but in some instances individuals will require more time to fully recover.
Many of these diseases originate from animal populations. Humans’ interaction with the environment, and animals contribute to the rate and prevalence of disease. All three areas are interconnected. One Health is a concept that views human, animal, and environmental health as one area of health. The three entities, when separated can hinder each other and delay progress. The opposite is also true. When public health officials recognize the correlation between human, animal, and environmental health, advancements and innovation can occur. Other public health issues are present in relation to spread of infectious disease between humans and animals. People must know how to cook animal products in order to kill pathogens. Many diseases are also transferred when humans disrupt ecosystems. These are areas where public health has the opportunity to make progress. The issues that infectious diseases cause occur across the globe. In addition, One Health concepts can be applied to populations all over the
Salmonella is one of the most common causes of food poisoning. It is a gram-negative, aerobic (oxygen requiring), rod-shaped bacterium that can infect humans, birds, reptiles, and other animals. It results in the swelling of the lining of the stomach and intestines. Salmonella food poisoning occurs worldwide, however it is most frequently reported in North America and Europe. In the United States, Salmonella is responsible for about 15% of all cases of food poisoning (Salmonella food poisoning).
Wardlaw, G.M. and Smith. Contemporary Nutrition: Issues and Insights. 5th Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill, pp 85, 2004.
Nutrition is a very controversial and confusing topic. One day coffee is bad for you, but the next day it is good. Alcohol is detrimental for our health one day, but the next day red wine is the elixir of life. There are dozens of diet plans and they promise a leaner and healthier body. There is the 3-Hour Diet that involves constantly eating small portions of anything we want to eat. The latest diet craze, the Paleo Diet, is based upon eating foods that our “hunter-gatherer ancestors” would have thrived on during the Paleolithic era. And there is the Blood Type Diet, the South Beach Diet, the Macrobiotic Diet, the Mediterranean Diet, and the list goes on. But who and what should we believe? Well, there is an optimal diet for humans and the answer might surprise many.
Fast food has been a very common solution for on the go eating because a restaurant is located at almost every corner and the convenience of drive thrus give people the luxury of not even having to get out of their car. Sutter Health indicates that over 25 percent of Americans consume fast food daily. It is not a secret that fast food has been blamed for being one of the major causes of obesity. This brings up the question how exactly does fast food affect specifically your everyday activities when it is consumed. Numerous arguments have been made about how fast food can hinder your daily progress and why it should be avoided or maybe be eaten but only in moderation.
Obesity was considered an epidemic once people started to realize it was the second biggest cause of death in America. Since obesity was considered an epidemic many started to consider if banning fast food restaurants or making fast food restaurants illegal, would help decrease the obesity rate. An unhealthy lifestyle can cause obesity, health problems, and death.
Nutrition is a basic necessity of life. Without a proper and well-balanced diet, it is difficult for any being, regardless of species, to survive. Unlike that of primates such as the great apes, the human diet is more full of calories and nutrients. Humans have a great understanding of what types of food are necessary to maintain good health. It is difficult to tell when the eating habits of Homo sapiens split apart from the eating habits of these other primates. Yet, one fact is certain. As human evolution continues to progress, the human diet also continues to evolve.
I love to eat a juicy steak at a nice restaurant once in a while, but sometimes it really isn’t worth it when you have hell-spawn disrupting the evening. Children running around and screaming are just accidents waiting to happen.
A SWOT analysis of the food control system in Bahrain revealed that certain strengths and weaknesses are inherent in the system. In addition to the weaknesses and the strengths, there are threats that would negatively affect the system if not prevented or brought under control. Nevertheless, the there are opportunities available for responding to the threats, making the Bahrain food control systems more efficient and effective. It is therefore important that some or all of these strengths, opportunities, threats, and weaknesses are reviewed. Conspicuous among the weaknesses is the fact that limited resources are available for the agencies and the personnel employed in the Bahrain food control system. Related to lack of resources is the lack of skills and competencies in applying modern techniques, more so in microbiological and chemical analysis. The second weakness of the Bahrain food control system is that most of the laws and regulations on food safety and control are not based on risk- or science-based analysis. In other words, the laws could be outdated and irrelevant in comparison with the latest mechanisms by which pathogens and other contaminants affect foodstuffs (Nestle, 2007). Furthermore, Bahrain lacks the technical expertise or competent enough personnel who could assess the effectiveness and the applicability of their food control laws.
Food borne illnesses are caused by consuming contaminated foods or beverages. There are many different disease-causing microbes, or pathogens. In addition, poisonous chemicals, or other harmful substances can cause food borne illnesses if they are present in food. More than two hundred and fifty different food borne illnesses have been described; almost all of these illnesses are infections. They are caused by a variety of bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can be food borne. (Center 1)
In the book, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan explores the relationship between nutrition and the Western diet, claiming that the answer to healthy eating is simply to “eat food”.