Microbiological Hazards: Bacterial Infection

Microbiological Hazards: Bacterial Infection
Some bacteria damage the intestines directly. This types of illness occurs from eating food contaminated with live pathogenic bacteria. Cells that are alive and reproducing are vegetative cells.

Many bacteria are killed in the acidic environment of the stomach, but some survive, pass through to the small intestine, and begin to grow in number.

When the bacteria have multiplied to a high enough number (this depends on the strain of bacteria, its virulence or strength and the health and susceptibility of the individual), the person become ill.

Salmonella is a classic example of this kind of bacteria. Salmonella exists in the intestinal tracts of animal , including food producing animals as well as turtles, cats, dogs, birds, rodents and wild animals. Raw milks and eggs are also sources of Salmonella. That will not be cooked, such as salad.

While heat easily destroy Salmonella, inadequate cooking allows some of the organisms to survive.

Often Salmonella is spread through cross contamination. This could happen when a cook prepares a piece of raw poultry on a cutting board and then uses the same cutting board without cleaning it to prepare another food that no will be cooked, such as salad.

The second food will not receive any heat treatment to kill the bacteria. Salmonella can reproduce very quickly; they double their number almost every 20 minutes.

When the number of Salmonella are very high, there is a better chance that some of them will survive the harsh environment of the stomach and make it to the small intestine.

Once there, they will continue to multiply, eventually causing damage to the intestine and symptoms of foodborne illness.

With some bacteria the infectious dose, the number of bacteria necessary to cause illness, is very high, in the millions, while in others it can be as low as 10 organisms.
Microbiological Hazards: Bacterial Infection