Ritos Catering

Posts Tagged ‘Poisoning’

What is food poisoning? It is an acute illness, usually sudden, brought about by eating contaminated or poisonous food. The symptoms of food poisoning are:

nausea – a queasy feeling as if you were about to be sick
sickness – vomiting
Pains in the bowl – gripping pains in the area of the stomach
Diarrhoea
Fever

The main causes of food poisoning are:

Bacteria – the commonest
Viruses – which are smaller than bacteria, are normally found in water
Chemicals – Insecticides and weed-killers
Metals – lead pipes, copper pans
Poisonous plants – toadstools, red kidney beans (insufficiently cooked)

Bacteria is the most common form of food poisoning and so it is important that we know more about them. Bacteria are tiny bugs that live in the air, in water, in soil, on and in people, in and on food.  Some bacteria causes illness.  They are called PATHOGENIC bacteria.  Some bacteria cause food to rot and decay, they are called SPOILAGE bacteria.  There are four things that bacteria need in order to grow.  These are:

Warmth. They love body temperature of 73 degrees but can happily grow at 15 degrees..  They grow most readily between 5°c and 63°c.  This is known as the DANGER ZONE

Time.  Each bacteria grows by splitting in half.  This takes time, on average every 20 minutes.  This is known as BINARY FISSION.  Imagine, one single bacterium by splitting in half every ten minutes can become more than a million in 3 and a half hours.

Food. They like high protein foods for example, poultry, cooked meat, dairy produce, shellfish, cooked rice, stews and gravies.

Moisture. They need water and most foods have enough water or moisture to let the bacteria thrive.

Some bacteria can form a hard protective case around themselves, this is called a SPORE.  This happens when the ‘going gets tough’, when it gets too hot or too dry. So they are able to survive very hot or cold temperatures and can even be present in dried foods.  Once the right conditions (5° – 63°c) return, the spore comes out of its protective casing and becomes a growing, food poisoning bacteria again.

Bacteria and food poisoning

We have established that the presence of bacteria is one of the most common causes of food poisoning – the presence of poisonous chemicals can also cause food poisoning.  There are a number of potentially toxic chemicals present in food. For example, potatoes which have turned green contain the toxic substance, Solanine, which is only dangerous when eaten in excess.Rhubarb contains Oxalic Acid – the amounts present in the stems which are normally cooked are relatively harmless to humans, but the higher concentration in the leaves makes them very dangerous to eat.A toxin is a poisonous substance that may be produced by the metabolism of a plant or animal, especially certain bacteria.  Toxic food poisoning is mainly caused by Staphylococci in the UK and more rarely in this country, Clostridium Botulinum.

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