Many times the food gets contaminated by germs or toxins. When contaminated food is eaten, it causes food poisoning. If not immediately, the symptoms of most types of food poisoning start to show up after 3 to 6 hours.
There are many ways in which a food can get contaminated. Some of them are:
1. Unrefrigerated food:
When food is cooked, it might be left unrefrigerated for long hours. If food is not refrigerated, at room temperatures the germs find it as an ideal place for colonizing. If the food has been left unrefrigerated for long hours, it should be cooked to the full prescribed temperature to kill any possible germ infection.
2. Improperly cooked food
Food must be cooked at prescribed temperatures for a certain time so as to kill the disease causing germs. Dairy and meat products have germs that can only be killed by cooking the food at the prescribed temperature.
Salads, that do not need cooking at all, are also a very common source of passing disease causing bacteria to humans. Bacteria like E. Coli are the main and common factors of food poisoning. The bacteria in the food may also come from where the food is processed such as the manufacturing or packing plants causing food poisoning in a large number of people prompting the stores to recall all the connected sold food items. The federal authorities take charge to pinpoint the source and the cause of the spread of the food poisoning bacteria.
Food poisoning can also occur by eating nuts that come from a contaminated packing plant.
Undercooked freshwater fish may contain tape worm larvae which when eaten causes the tapeworm to grow and produce more eggs in the intestine. The impacted person may pass eggs or parts of the tapeworm in the stools. Tapeworm may go undetected for quite some time after which the patient starts to complain about abdominal pain, vomiting and loss of appetite.
Fish is also known to cause mercury poisoning which may not have any visible impacts on adults for a long time, but can severely impact fetuses or breast feeding babies and little older kids.
3. Unhygienic conditions
Water
Tap water may contain a variety of disease causing germs. When salads or fruits are washed using contaminated water, the disease causing bacteria get a chance to cause food poisoning. Drinking and using filtered or boiled water is a good way to avoid water as source of food poisoning.
Dirty hands
Hands should be thoroughly washed with soap and water before preparing and or eating any kind of food. Even if all precautions are taken in cooking the food hygienically, eating with dirty hands can cause diseases which might be mistaken to come from the food that has been eaten.
Dirty cooking environment
Just as hands should be washed, the environment where food is kept, cooked and served should be clean and germs free. Cooked food should not be served in the dishes in which the uncooked food was placed sometime ago.
Many a times, law enforcement agencies find restaurant not following the guidelines to dispose off the unused food which is often served the next day. Such improper storage of food not only allows germs to grow, but it invites other rodents and insects that can bring their own set of germs and add it to the food.
Unfortunately, for a common person, most often it is only after eating that one may realize that the food was contaminated. If food poisoning is detected by eating a certain food bought from a certain store or restaurant, it should be reported to law enforcement agencies as quickly as possible so that the distribution of the contaminated food is stopped immediately.
Symptoms
Nausea and vomiting
Fever
Headache
Abdominal cramps
Diarrhea
If any of the above symptoms are severe and are expected to come after eating a certain food, one must rush to get medical attention as quickly as possible.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Most food poisoning might be only mild episodes that may cause diarrhea or vomiting and other symptoms described above. These symptoms may cease after about a day or two. If the symptoms are severe, or if they persist for longer than two days, one must seek medical attention.
The most common impact of food poisoning is dehydration. Fruit juices and water should be taken in enough quantities without eating anything solid for a couple of days. If there is blood in the stools, breathing problems or complications related to the nervous system, one must seek medical attention immediately without waiting to treat the symptoms on their own.
Infants and patients who cannot eat due to vomiting, are given intravenous fluids to avoid dehydration. In case of poisoning from toxins in the food, the doctor may need to empty the bowels and the stomach to limit the spread of toxins.
