Foodborne Illness

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Basics

• Summary
• Start Here
• Diagnosis and Tests
• Prevention and Risk Factors

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• Related Issues
• Specifics

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Research

• Statistics and Research
• Clinical Trials
• Journal Articles

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• Children
• Teenagers
• Patient Handouts

Summary

Each year, around 48 million people in the United States get sick from contaminated food. Common causes include bacteria and viruses. Less often, the cause may be a parasite or a harmful chemical, such as a high amount of pesticides. Symptoms of foodborne illness depend on the cause. They can be mild or serious. They usually include:

• Upset stomach
• Abdominal cramps
• Nausea and vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Fever
• Dehydration

Most foodborne illnesses are acute. This means that they happen suddenly and last a short time.

It takes several steps to get food from the farm or fishery to your dining table. Contamination can happen during any of these steps. For example, it can happen to:

• Raw meat during slaughter
• Fruits and vegetables when they are growing or when they are processed
• Refrigerated foods when they are left on a loading dock in warm weather

But it can also happen in your kitchen if you leave food out for more than 2 hours at room temperature. Handling food safely can help prevent foodborne illnesses.

Most people with foodborne illness get better on their own. It is important to replace lost fluids and electrolytes to prevent dehydration. If your health care provider can diagnose the specific cause, you may get medicines such as antibiotics to treat it. For more serious illness, you may need treatment at a hospital.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Start Here

• About Food Safety (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• About Four Steps to Food Safety (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Food Poisoning (Department of Health and Human Services)
• Food Poisoning (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
• Food Poisoning (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) Also in Spanish
• Foodborne Illness-Causing Organisms in the U.S.: What You Need to Know (Food and Drug Administration) - PDF

Diagnosis and Tests

• Bacteria Culture Test (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish
• Ova and Parasite Test (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish
• Stool Tests (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish

Prevention and Risk Factors

• Food Safety: MedlinePlus Health Topic (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish
• People at Risk of Foodborne Illness (Food and Drug Administration)
• People at Risk: Those with Weakened Immune Systems (Department of Health and Human Services) Also in Spanish

Related Issues

• Food Delivery Safety (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Specifics

• About Trichinellosis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• About Vibrio Infection (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Chicken and Food Poisoning (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Lettuce, other Leafy Greens, and Food Safety (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Norovirus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Oysters and Vibriosis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Parasites and Foodborne Illness (Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service)
• Shigellosis (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

Statistics and Research

• Burden of Foodborne Illness in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Foodborne Diseases (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: A comparative study of food safety knowledge among mobile food vendors...
• Article: Chemical analysis of toxic elements: total cadmium, lead, mercury, arsenic and...
• Article: Total mercury exposure through canned tuna in water sold in Quito,...
• Foodborne Illness -- see more articles

Find an Expert

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Also in Spanish
• Food and Drug Administration
• FoodSafety.gov (Department of Health and Human Services)
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Children

• Collecting a Stool Sample for Testing (For Parents) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
• Cronobacter Sakazakii (Food and Drug Administration)
• Food Poisoning (Nemours Foundation)
• Preventing Cronobacter in Infants (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Shigella Infections (Shigellosis) (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish

Teenagers

• Gastrointestinal Infections and Diarrhea (Nemours Foundation)

Patient Handouts

• Food poisoning (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Foodborne Illness-Causing Organisms in the U.S.: What You Need to Know (Food and Drug Administration) - PDF
• Gastritis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Poisoning - fish and shellfish (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Shigellosis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish