• Question: is there only 1 type of food posion????

    Asked by whmegandnath to Emma on 3 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Emma Trantham

      Emma Trantham answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Nope. There’s lots and lots of different types of food poisoning (sadly – if there was only 1 then we’d only need 1 cure).

      They can be separated into

      -toxins that microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae, protozoa) produce when sitting on our food
      -microbes that we accidentally eat (because something is not cooked/undercooked/contaminated) which then produce a toxin in our gut
      -microbes that we accidentally eat that multiply and colonise our guts
      -microbes that we accidentally eat that multiply and invade through the cells that line our guts to spread around the body.

      Some types of food poisoning only give us diarrhoea and vomiting (ewww), others can be really serious and can kill us!

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