Nutrition and microbiology

Nutrition and microbiology

Introduction

More than 200 known diseases and 14 million illnesses are transmitted through food each year. Pathogens such as bacteria (causing 66% of diseases), parasites, protozoa (4%), molds, viruses (4%) in ingested food, are the primary causes of food borne illness. Chemicals (accounting to 26% of diseases), either present in the food naturally or added, are also major cause of food borne diseases (FBD). There are two categories of FBD; intoxications and infections. Microbes that grow on the food (ready to eat) produce toxins. Ingesting these toxins causes intoxication. Pathogens, on the other hand, cause infections. The people ...