Food poisoning, a foodborne illness, is caused by eating contaminated food. Infectious germs, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, and toxins caused by them, cause food poisoning.
Infectious germs and toxins can contaminate food at any stage of processing or production. Contamination can also occur in the home if food is prepared or cooked incorrectly.
Symptoms of food poisoning can begin within hours of eating the contaminated food. The symptoms often include nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea. Often, food poisoning is mild and goes away without treatment, but sometimes it becomes severe, and patients suffering from it need to go to the hospital.
Safe food is essential to human health. Safe food is one of the most important elements that guarantee good health. Conversely, unsafe food is the cause of many diseases and contributes to other forms of poor health, such as poor growth and development, micronutrient deficiencies, non-communicable or infectious diseases and mental illness. Globally, foodborne diseases affect one in 10 people. In most cases, they are preventable.
Dr Abdulmajeed bin Saleh al Qutaiti, an emergency physician at the Oman Medical Speciality Board, stated: “Food poisoning is a group of intestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach cramps, abdominal pain, loss of appetite and sometimes fever that occurs as a result of consuming food contaminated with germs, and with unsuitable substances. Human consumption’s main symptoms begin a few hours or days after eating or drinking contaminated food, and food poisoning may cause complications such as colon irritation.
The hot and damp atmosphere is a perfect environment for reproducing germs and parasites, so cases of food poisoning rise in the summer, and hygiene is recommended during food preparation.
In addition, food poisoning may cause dehydration, one of the most serious complications of food poisoning, and results in a loss of water, salts and essential minerals.
Infants, the elderly, and people with weak immune systems or chronic diseases become severely dehydrated when they lose more fluids than they can compensate for as a result. In this case, they may need to be hospitalised and receive intravenous fluids. Children are more likely to become dehydrated from vomiting, especially if it is accompanied by diarrhoea.
The General Directorate of Muscat Municipality always alerts for a healthy environment and calls for awareness to enhance the concept of hygiene and the prevention of public health. Furthermore, to ascertain the extent to which food stores, restaurants and cafes comply with safety and health requirements in preparing food. Any carelessness may risk human health and safety.
The civic body’s projects proactively implement precautionary measures to avoid food poisoning cases as much as possible.
Laboratory samples or ‘swabs’ are taken from the hands of workers, surfaces, tools and food samples to ensure they have been heat-treated. The samples are sent to the central laboratory of Muscat Municipality. The project also aspires to detect pesticide residues in vegetables and fruits and the pickles used in restaurants to ensure that they do not exceed the permissible limits according to specifications and standards.
World Food Safety Day, which takes place on June 7, also aims to draw attention and motivate action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, as well as contribute to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development.
The International Day is an opportunity to step up efforts to ensure that our food is safe, popularise food safety and reduce the global burden of foodborne diseases.
