Have you seen bloated can of food? Avoid it

We often spot bloated cans in the grocery stores or jars that have cracks or have loose lids. Well, the fact is you should avoid them to ensure that you don't suffer from a case of food poisoning.

Bobby Krishna TM, Principal Food Studies Officer at Dubai Municipality said that food poisoning or more specifically 'foodborne' illness is caused by bacteria or their toxins, parasites and viruses.

Harmful bacteria are the most common cause of food-borne illness. Food may have some bacteria on them when you buy them.

Raw meat may become contaminated in the farm or during slaughter, and fruit and vegetables may become contaminated when they are growing or when they are being processed.

“But it can also happen in your kitchen if you leave certain high risk food items out for more than 2 hours at room temperature,” said Krishna.

Food can get contaminated any time if there are favourable conditions, and there is no reason to believe that there will be more food poisoning at certain times of the year as the ambient temperature of food preparation, storage and serving areas in Dubai is almost always above 25 Degree C throughout the year.

Only in countries where food temperature would be low enough to prevent or slow down bacterial growth in winter, would you see a difference in number of cases.

“While it is important to handle cold foods such as milk and cold cut meat more carefully during summer - even during the colder months, bacteria can grow in these food items in a couple of hours and is thus hard to ignore,” he added.

The symptoms of  food poisoning range from mild to serious, and they include: upset stomach, abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and dehydration.

There are safe steps in food handling, cooking, and storage can prevent foodborne illness.

There are five basic steps to food safety at home:

•  Handling food safely can help prevent foodborne illnesses.
• Clean - always wash your fruits and vegetables, hands, counters, and cooking utensils.
• Separate - keep raw foods to themselves. Germs can spread from one food to another.
• Cook - foods need to get hot and stay hot. Heat kills germs.
• Chill - put fresh food in the refrigerator right away.
• Check packages to be sure food hasn't reached its expiration date. avoid

To confirm a food-borne illness, we need the stool culture report from the hospital and the cause of the illness should be identified clearly.

An infection caused by bacteria would show up only after a minimum of 6 hours or even after days, the municipality normally look at the meal history for 3 to 6 days and not just the last meal.

“You can report illness by calling 800900 and we will investigate it,” added Krishna.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.