REFERENCE MATERIAL: FOOD CONTAMINATION

Safety of food is of utmost importance. A contaminated food become a source of infection. We have
heard of multitude of food poisoning episodes. Food contamination is the presence of harmful
substances in the food that makes the food risky to be consumed.

Food poisoning often occurs because of negligence of the food safety. One must be aware of the various
food hazards that can impact the food safety.

Pathogenic microorganism are responsible for the food borne illness. Food borne illness are broadly of
two type – food infection or food intoxication.

Food infection is caused due to ingestion of live pathogenic microorganism that breed in the intestine at
a very high rate leading to gastro intestinal disease with symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhoea nausea
etc. This also referred to as food poisoning in common parlance. Food infection is easily prone to meat
eaters if the cooking temperature do not sufficiently kill the microbes. The most common micro
organism seen to cause food infection is salmonella. The food poisoning episodes after eating a
shawarma may be due to undercooked meat where salmonella thrives. Salmonella can multiply very
fast. It doubles in number every 20 minutes. The symptoms of salmonella infection includes abdominal
cramp, diarrhoea, and fever.

Food intoxication refers to the toxins released by the microorganism into the food, which when
consumed can cause damage to kidney, brain, liver and other vital organs. This can be potentially
dangerous leading to even death or permanent infirmity. The bacteria may produce and release harmful
toxins which can remain in the food even if the pathogens are killed in cooking. These toxins may not be
easily detected through smell, appearance or taste. Eg. Clostridium botulinum. The poison released is a
neuro toxin that affect brain causing paralysis and death.

Food safety is of prime importance to any food processing or handling industry whether a restaurant,
food processing industry such as meat processing unit, dairy plants; manufacturing units such as bakery
and confectionary.
Since recent times there is a sudden interest and importance towards food safety and quality.

Why has food safety gained prominence lately?

The issues responsible for the food quality and safety to gain importance are:

• Fast changing lifestyles & eating habits

• Processed and packaged foods
• Pre-packaged spices, condiments & oilseeds
• Logistics governing transport of bulk food
• Microbial adaptations, antibiotic resistance altered human susceptibility
• Access to world trade markets through international trade – signatory to World Trade
Organisation (WTO)
• Pollutants

Food safety regulations will help countries to improve trade, travel and tourism. Globalization has led to
frequent travels and intense trade relationships among countries. It is important to safeguard people’s
health by providing safe food and water so that they are encouraged to travel more frequently into your
country.