Food poisoning

作者：admin  点击次数：15  发布时间：2025-04-25

1. Food poisoning and foodborne diseases
The definition of food poisoning is clearly defined in GB 14938-1994 Diagnostic Criteria and Technical Treatment General Principles for Food Poisoning: "Food poisoning refers to non-infectious (not infectious) acute and subacute diseases that occur after ingesting food containing biological or chemical toxic and harmful substances or taking toxic and harmful substances as food." WHO defines foodborne diseases as "Foodborne diseases refer to a type of disease that is usually infectious or toxic and is caused by various pathogenic factors that enter the human body through ingestion, and the pathogenic factors are classified into eight categories: bacteria and toxins, parasites and protozoa, viruses and rickettsia, poisonous animals, poisonous plants, fungal toxins, chemical pollutants, and unidentified pathogens." Therefore, foodborne diseases include traditional food poisoning, as well as known intestinal infectious diseases (such as typhoid fever, viral hepatitis, etc.) and parasitic diseases, food allergies, acute gastroenteritis caused by overeating, and chronic poisoning.
2. Poisoned food
Poisoned food refers to food that contains toxic and harmful substances and causes food poisoning, which is divided into the following categories:
① Bacterial poisoning food: refers to food containing bacteria or bacterial toxins.
②) Fungal poisoning food: refers to food contaminated by fungi and their toxins. ③ Animal poisoning food: animals or parts of animals that naturally contain toxic ingredients; edible animal foods (such as fish, etc.) that produce toxic ingredients under specific conditions.
④ Plant poisoning food: plants that naturally contain toxic ingredients or their processed products (such as hemp oil, tung oil, etc.); plants that fail to destroy or remove toxic ingredients during processing (such as bitter almonds, cassava, etc.); edible plant foods that produce a large amount of toxic ingredients under certain conditions (such as sprouted potatoes, etc.).
⑤ Chemically poisoned food: food contaminated by toxic and harmful chemicals; food with non-food grade, counterfeit or prohibited food additives and nutritional enhancers, as well as food with excessive use of food additives; food containing non-food additive chemicals; food with chemical changes in nutrients (such as rancidity of fats).
III. Classification of food poisoning
(I) Bacterial food poisoning
Bacterial food poisoning is the most common food poisoning, which refers to food poisoning caused by people ingesting bacterially poisoned food. According to statistics on food poisoning in my country in the past five years, bacterial food poisoning accounts for about 50% of the total number of food poisoning, and animal food is the main food that causes bacterial food poisoning, among which meat and cooked meat products rank first, followed by spoiled poultry, dead livestock meat, fish, milk, rice, etc. This type of poisoning is caused by bacteria contamination and large-scale reproduction in food and the production of toxins during the production, processing, transportation, storage, and sales of food. The occurrence of bacterial food poisoning is closely related to the eating habits of people in different regions. In the United States, people eat more meat, eggs and cakes, and suffer the most from staphylococcal food poisoning: In Japan, people like to eat sashimi, and suffer the most from Vibrio parahaemolyticus food poisoning: In my country, people eat more livestock and poultry meat and poultry eggs, and the most common bacterial food poisoning is caused by Salmonella, Proteus, pathogenic Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, followed by Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Bacillus cereus food poisoning. Raw material deterioration, mixed raw and cooked food, and improper storage of cooked food are the main causes of this type of poisoning. In addition, failure to cook thoroughly before eating is also an important reason. Bacterial food poisoning is divided into three types according to the invasion method: ① Infection type: Pathogens enter the intestines with food, continue to grow and reproduce in the intestines, rely on their invasive power to attach to the intestinal mucosa or invade the mucosa and submucosal layer, causing inflammatory pathological changes such as congestion, leukocyte infiltration, edema, and exudation of the intestinal mucosa. Common ones include Salmonella food poisoning and Streptococcus food poisoning. ②) Toxin type: Food poisoning caused by the intake of toxins produced by pathogenic bacteria, such as the intake of staphylococcal toxins and Clostridium botulinum toxins.
③ Mixed type: Food poisoning caused by certain pathogenic bacteria is the synergistic effect of pathogenic bacteria and their toxins, which is called mixed bacterial food poisoning, such as food poisoning caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus.
(II) Fungal toxin and moldy food poisoning This is an acute disease caused by eating food contaminated by toxin-producing fungi and their toxins, such as poisoning by red diseased wheat and sugarcane. Because they need a certain temperature and humidity to grow and reproduce and produce toxins, poisoning often has obvious seasonality and regionality. Fungal toxins are relatively stable and cannot be destroyed by heating with general cooking methods. The incidence rate is high, and the mortality rate varies depending on the species of bacteria and their toxins.
(III) Plant food poisoning This is poisoning caused by eating plant-based poisoning foods or consuming plant foods that have not removed toxic components due to improper processing and cooking, such as poisoning by poison and cassava. This type of food poisoning is obviously seasonal and regional, with a high incidence rate and a mortality rate that varies depending on the plant species. Most of them do not have a specific treatment. For some serious poisonings that can cause death, it is very important to eliminate the poison as soon as possible for the prognosis of the poisoned person. The plant foods that cause poisoning are mainly poisonous mushrooms, fruits and vegetables, and cereal products. The most common plant food poisonings are bean poisoning, poisonous mushroom poisoning, and cassava poisoning. The poisonous mushrooms, sprouted potatoes, datura, bitter almonds, tung oil, etc. that can cause death.
(IV) Animal food poisoning Food poisoning caused by cannibalistic animal poisoning foods is animal food poisoning. Such as poisoning by eating river, fish gall, poisonous shellfish, animal thyroid, etc. Its incidence rate and mortality rate are high, and there is a certain regionality. The animal foods that cause poisoning are mainly meat, puffer fish and poultry. There are two main types of animal poisoning foods: animals or parts of animals that naturally contain toxic ingredients are used as food, which causes poisoning reactions when eaten by mistake; edible animal foods that produce a large amount of toxic ingredients under certain conditions, such as eating mackerel, can also cause poisoning.
(V) Chemical food poisoning
This is food poisoning caused by eating chemically poisoned foods, such as arsenic, zinc, nitrite, pesticides, etc. The incidence of chemical food poisoning is relatively rare, and the onset is related to the time and consumption of food. It is not obvious in terms of region or season, and is not contagious, but the incidence and mortality rates are high. The main causes of chemical food poisoning include: ① Ingestion of food contaminated by toxic chemicals; ② Food poisoning caused by adding non-food-grade, counterfeit or prohibited food additives, nutritional enhancers, and excessive use of food additives; ③ Chemical changes in nutrients due to storage and other reasons, such as poisoning caused by rancidity of fats.