Food Poisoning: Causes and Symptoms

We all learn in school to maintain hygiene and to follow food hygiene. If not taken care, than you can land in trouble and get food poisoning. Though food poisoning is common and mild disease, but still it can be very bad for your health. It can have fatal consequences, if ignored. Basically food poisoning is the indigestion of food.

Causes of Food Poisoning

When we eat food that is contaminated with germs like bad bacteria, which produces poisonous substances, we end up in having food poisoning. These poisonous substances make our food toxic and poisonous.

Contamination of food can occur if the food is not prepared with hygiene.  It may happen if, person who is preparing the food does not wash his hand after using bathroom or have some kind of infections.

Poor washing of fruits and vegetables, thus leaving pesticides on them, can also lead to food poisoning. Another cause of food poisoning is, if food is not cooked properly, at required temperature. It includes dairy products also. Packed food, if not stored at right temperature can be the other reason for food poisoning.

Most common bacteria that cause food poisoning are salmonella, listeria, campylobacter and E. colli, clostridia and shigella. Some bacteria may cause immediate infection, while other may take time.

Symptoms of food Poisoning

Common symptoms of food poisoning are nausea, throwing up, abdomen cramps followed by a sudden appearance of diarrhea within 48 hours.  Sometimes these symptoms are followed by chills and fever, bloody stools, dehydration and even damage to nervous system, depending on the contaminant and amount of food eaten.

These symptoms can develop rapidly within 30mins of eating contaminated food or may develop over time slowly. Usually in mild food poisoning, these symptoms last for maximum of two days.

Seek medical help if diarrhea, puking or nausea last for more than 48 hours, if sufferer is younger than 3 yrs or whenever you feel that symptoms are getting out of control and you cannot cope up.