Food Borne Diseases

Submitted By: Vidya Anant

Introduction

Food borne diseases are harmful diseases mainly affecting the gastro-intestinal tract and are

transmitted through consumption of contaminated

food or drink.

Diseases A disease is a particular

abnormal, pathological condition that affects part or all of an organism. It is often construed as a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by factors originally from an external source, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune diseases. In humans, "disease" is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, or death to the person.

It sometimes includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function. Diseases usually affect people not only physically, but also emotionally, as contracting and living with a disease can alter one's perspective on life, and one's personality.

Classification Of diseases

Diseases

Communicable diseases

Non-Communicable

diseases

Infectious or

contagious

Parasitic Allergic

OrganicDeficiency

A.Communicable Diseases: Infectious Diseases: They are

caused by micro-organisms and are transmitted by direct or indirect contact. For e.g. Typhoid, Hepatitis, Influenza, Chicken pox etc.

Parasitic Diseases: They are diseases caused by the presence of animal parasites such as tapeworms, roundworms and pinworms which grow in the human gut. They mainly come from improperly washed vegetables.

A.Non-Communicable Diseases: Deficiency diseases: These occur because

of a shortage of certain nutrients or foods in our daily diet. Night blindness occurs from deficiency of Vitamin A deficiency.

Organic Diseases: These diseases are caused by malfunctioning of certain organs in our body such as pancreatic malfunctioning causes diabetics.

Allergic Diseases: These disorders occur because of the abnormal sensitivity of the body to certain foods which are normally consumed in the diet. These may be caused by egg white, strawberries, selfish and many other food items.

Modes of Disease Transmission

Direct contact: With some source of disease.

Vehicle Transmission: Where milk, water and other foods act as vehicles for transmitting diseases.

Vector Transmission: By insects and other invertebrate hosts that transmit infection by biting or by depositing infective material on skin, food.

Airborne: By droplet infection. Droplet infection may occur when a person sneezes or coughs and expels particles of moisture containing a large number of organisms.

Food Borne Illness

A food borne illness is a general term applied to all types of

illness caused by an organism, substance or material of any

kind which is present in food and gains entrance into the body when such food is consumed.

The cause of contamination is generally faulty handling, poor

sanitary practices, insects, rodents, or micro-organisms.

Food Poisoning

Food poisoning or food intoxication is an illness caused

by toxins present in contaminated food. The toxin

may be poisonous chemical toxin which accidently or intentionally

added a naturally occurring poison like solanine in green potatoes or toxic metabolite

excreted by bacteria.

Food Infections

Food infection is an illness caused by micro-organisms. It results from the consumption of food that contains living bacteria

which are multiplying and are capable of producing diseases. The illness which results is the

reaction of the body to the presence of micro-organisms or

to their metabolites.

Control of Food Borne Illness

Food should be handled in a hygienic manner by all food handlers and infected handlers should be kept away.

Cross-contamination from raw to cook foods can be prevented by washing hands and all equipment or surfaces in contact with raw food.

The time gap between preparation and service of food should be reduced to avoid long storage in a warm environment.

Large masses of food which have to be re-heated later should be cooled quickly to 15’c and refrigerated immediately.

Food should be reheated thoroughly so that the centre of the food gets heated to temperatures high enough to destroy bacteria.

Frozen foods should be thawed carefully at temperatures between 10 to 15’c and frozen food should not be cooked till it has thawed.

Avoid cooling and heating food repeatedly.Leftover food should be refrigerated

immediately to keep it out of the danger zone.Suspect food should be discarded immediately

without tasting it.High risks food like meat, poultry, eggs and

milk should be purchased from certified dealers only.