Food poisoning

 

Is it safe to consume a piece of food that has dropped on the floor 5 sec ago?

The answer is NO.

Why?

Bacterial infection can occur almost instantly. Fatal bacteria has a 100% transfer rate. Even for food left around after 24 hours, the transfer rate drops by 40%, but some bacteria can survive up to 4 weeks. Study conducted found that dry surfaces can transfer more bacteria.

A person can be poisoned after consuming food directly containing harmful toxins, chemicals, parasites or microorganisms like bacteria or viruses.

What is bacteria?

Bacteria are usually classified as plants. They are some 10000 times larger than viruses. Living mainly in the space between the cells attacked, they would feed on them. Most bacterial diseases result from poisons known as exotoxins that can be very toxic.

Symptoms

Symptoms of food poisoning may include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, chills, fever, severe headache that can last for few days. Contamination can be so severe, spreading like wildfire to land a patient in hospital and having drips after intense dehydration.

Elderly, children and those with poor immune system may suffer more and lead to other complications like arthritis, liver and kidney failure if left untreated.

Food poisoning can be broadly divided into 2 categories:

(1) Infectious agents such as viruses, parasites and bacteria eg. E. coli, campylobacter, shigella and clostridium. The symptoms usually appear 12-72 hours or more after taking contaminated food.

What is always mistaken about E.coli - is harmless and commonly found in the intestines of humans and animals. In fact, it actually serves a useful function – to suppress harmful bacteria and aid in vitamin absorption. However, it can also turn nasty under the right circumstances. For instance, nearly 85% of urinary tract infections are caused by this bacteria.

+ Most common type is Salmonellosis or Salmonella infection easily found in undercooked poultry, eggs and meat. This bacterium is typically associated with eggs as it hides in the ovaries of the hen and thus contaminates the eggs before the shells are formed. Thus, eggs do not need to be cracked or unclean on the surface to be contaminated. For info, this bacteria requires as little as 20 in number to make a person sick.

+ Another bacteria, vibrio parahaomolyticus can be found in raw seafood like clams, oysters and sushi made from raw fish. This bacteria requires nearly one million to make one sick.

Cooks who handle raw food and then handle other foods, without washing their hands in between, endanger others. Taking steamboat without cooking the raw food well poses similar risk of contamination.

(2) Toxic agents can be found in poisonous fruits or mushrooms, improperly prepared exotic food (eg. fugu sashimi) and fruits and vegetables infected by bacteria that inhabit the soil in the form of harmless spores.

Several foods can naturally contain toxins, many of which are not produced by bacteria. Plants in particular may be toxic whereas animals with natural poison are rare. In evolutionary terms, animals can escape being eaten by fleeing; plants can use only passive defenses such as poisons and distasteful substances, for example capsaicin in chili peppers and pungent sulfur compounds in garlic and onions. Most animal poisons are not synthesised by the animal, but acquired by eating poisonous plants to which the animal is immune, or by bacterial action.

Unlike diseases caused by direct bacterial infection, some foodborne illnesses are caused by exotoxins which are excreted by the cell as the bacterium grows. Exotoxins can produce illness even when the microbes that produced them have been killed. Symptoms typically appear after 24 hours depending on the amount of toxin ingested.

+ For instance, Staphylococcus aureus produces a toxin that causes intense vomiting.

+ The rare but potentially deadly disease, botulism affects the central nervous system by blocking the transmission of impulses from nerves to muscles, paralysing it. In the worst case, paralysis of the entire body and death can happen.  It has been found in home-canned foods with a low acidity level, such as asparagus, corn, beets and green beans. Avoid bulging lid or cracked jar for this matter.

Keeping food in the open for too long allows bacteria to thrive on it. Freezing, drying and treating with chemicals like sodium nitrite prevent C botulinum spores from growing and producing toxins.

+ Aflatoxins, frequently found in tree nuts, peanuts, maize, sorghum and other oilseeds, including corn and cottonseeds, predominantly targets the liver, which will result in necrosis, cirrhosis, and carcinoma.

+ Altertoxins can be present in sorghum, ragi, wheat and tomatoes. Some research has shown that the toxins can be easily cross-contaminated between grain commodities, suggesting that manufacturing and storage of grain commodities is a critical practice.

Mechanism

Incubation period

The delay between consumption of a contaminated food and appearance of the first symptoms of illness is called the incubation period. This ranges from hours to days (and rarely months or even years, such as in the case of Listeriosis or Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease), depending on the agent, and on how much was consumed. If symptoms occur within 1-6 hours after eating the food, it suggests that it is caused by a bacterial toxin or a chemical rather than live bacteria.

The long incubation period of many foodborne illnesses tends to cause sufferers to attribute their symptoms to “stomach flu”.

During the incubation period, microbes pass through the stomach into the intestine, attach to the cells lining the intestinal walls, and begin to multiply there. Whilst some merely stay in the intestine, others produce a toxin that is absorbed into the bloodstream, and some can directly invade the deeper body tissues. The symptoms produced depend on the type of microbe.

Our line of defence

Children are most vulnerable to external attacks given their underdeveloped immune system. In critical cases, the walls of their intestines can be damaged.

As for adults, the gastrointestinal tract responds with an inflammation and may cause the temporary disruption of its ability to absorb and stimulate secretion of fluids.

The body attempts to purge the toxins through vomiting and passing watery stools that can lead to dehydration. At the same time, it raises the temperature to kill the pathogens, resulting in a fever.

Remedies

+ At the first suspicion of food poisoning, protect our immune system by taking 6 charcoal tablets to neutralise and eliminate poisons from the bloodstream. After 6 hours, repeat the same dosage. Flush down with a lot of water.

+ Antibiotics can effectively treat bacterial infections, but can also promote infection by destroying the friendly bacteria found in our digestive tract.

+ If vomiting and diarrhea happen at the same time, the body can be seriously dehydrated and need to replace lost fluids and electrolytes urgently.

+ Do not take solid foods but drink plenty of fluids like barley water, porridge, clear soup and juices.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foodborne_illness

More comments

+ The way to prevent food poisoning is to take safety precautions during the handling, cooking and storage of food.

+ Bacteria mutate all the time and can turn into a potent virus by altering its genetic material to counteract antibiotic effect. Before the advent of antibiotics, infectious diseases caused by micro-organisms that are of life-threatening nature were treated with garlic. Its main component, allicin is effective against bacteria, virus, fungus and other types of pathogens. Scientific experiments show that 100 mg of garlic extract has the same potency as 10 mg of penicillin.

Best advice is to keep the immune system strong at all times and not to worry what will come next. Populate our gastrointestinal tract with friendly bacteria at all times so that there is lesser chance of pathogens taking charge of our body.

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