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foodborne illness
Sign in to saveAlso known as food poisoning, foodborne disease, food-borne illness, foodborne diseases
illness resulting from food that is spoiled or contaminated by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites or toxins
Foodborne illness is sickness caused by eating food that contains harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or toxins, or that has spoiled. It matters because it can make people seriously ill and is a significant public health concern.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Research
32,968 papers- Foodborne illness acquired in the United States--major pathogens.Emerging infectious diseases · 2011Scallan E, Hoekstra RM, Angulo FJ et al.DOI: 10.3201/eid1701.p11101
- Foodborne Illness Acquired in the United States-Major Pathogens, 2019.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Scallan Walter EJ, Cui Z, Tierney R et al.DOI: 10.3201/eid3104.240913
- Foodborne illness.ReviewEmergency medicine clinics of North America · 2008Pigott DCDOI: 10.1016/j.emc.2008.01.009
- Foodborne Illness Outbreaks Reported to National Surveillance, United States, 2009-2018.ReviewEmerging infectious diseases · 2022White AE, Tillman AR, Hedberg C et al.DOI: 10.3201/eid2806.211555
- Hypothesis Generation During Foodborne-Illness Outbreak Investigations.ReviewAmerican journal of epidemiology · 2021White AE, Smith KE, Booth H et al.DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwab118
- Vibrio parahaemolyticus Foodborne Illness Associated with Oysters, Australia, 2021-2022.ReviewEmerging infectious diseases · 2024Fearnley E, Leong LEX, Centofanti A et al.DOI: 10.3201/eid3011.240172
- Climate Change, Foodborne Pathogens and Illness in Higher-Income Countries.ReviewCurrent environmental health reports · 2018Lake IR, Barker GCDOI: 10.1007/s40572-018-0189-9
- Foodborne illness in the elderly.ReviewJournal of food protection · 1998Smith JLDOI: 10.4315/0362-028x-61.9.1229
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Encyclopedic overview
Foodborne illness (also known as foodborne disease and food poisoning) is any illness resulting from the contamination of food by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites, as well as prions (the agents of mad cow disease), and toxins such as aflatoxins in peanuts, poisonous mushrooms, and various species of beans that have not been boiled for at least 10 minutes. While contaminants directly cause some symptoms, many effects of foodborne illness result from the body's immune response to these agents, which can vary significantly between individuals and populations based on prior exposure.
Symptoms vary depending on the cause. They often include vomiting, fever, aches, and diarrhea. Bouts of vomiting can be repeated with an extended delay in between. This is because even if infected food was eliminated from the stomach in the first bout, microbes, like bacteria (if applicable), can pass through the stomach into the intestine and begin to multiply. Some types of microbes stay in the intestine.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “foodborne illness” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.