Food Poisoning News and Research

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Food poisoning is a term given to infections with bacteria, parasites, viruses, or toxins from germs that affects humans via contaminated food or water.

Treatment for enterotoxin B exposure

A research team led by the University of Illinois has developed a treatment for exposure to enterotoxin B, a noxious substance produced by the Staphylococcus aureus bacterium.

22 May 2007

Herpes infection may be symbiotic

Mice with chronic herpes virus infections can better resist the bacterium that causes plague and a bacterium that causes one kind of food poisoning, researchers report in Nature.

17 May 2007

When is food "done" enough to prevent food poisoning?

Food scientists have found that relying only on internal color to check if food is cooked properly isn't adequate. A beef patty may be brown throughout before it reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit, the recommended minimum safe temperature. And a safely cooked hamburger may still appear pink on the inside.

10 May 2007

The health effects of climate change in the UK

The Department of Health and the Health Protection Agency have today published an updated report of the Health Effects of Climate Change in the UK .

7 May 2007

FDA warns consumers on health risks of keeping pet turtles

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is urgently reminding the public that contact with baby turtles can pose a serious health risk to infants, small children, and adults with impaired immune systems as they can be natural hosts to Salmonella, a group of bacteria that can cause severe illness and death.

8 Apr 2007

Throw out peanut butter from 2004!

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of March 7, 2007, 425 people in 44 states have now been infected with the strain of Salmonella Tennessee found in Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter products.

12 Mar 2007

FDA confirms peanut butter the source of salmonella outbreak affecting over 300

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has confirmed that an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning was caused by contaminated peanut butter.

25 Feb 2007

Organic baby food in latest food scare

Authorities in Singapore have ordered the recall of a baby food product by Earth's Best on the grounds that it may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, which can cause botulism.

21 Feb 2007

Norwalk virus closes Canadian hospital

A hospital in Toronto, Canada has been closed to patients and visitors following an outbreak of the Norwalk virus.

18 Feb 2007

Latest food scare in the U.S.- Salmonella in peanut butter

In the latest food scare to hit the United States the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned consumers not to eat some brands of peanut butter.

18 Feb 2007

New, rapid-detection system for Salmonella

The food and drink we consume have to pass strict quality controls. Nevertheless, these measures are not always sufficient, given that sometimes certain foodstuffs can still give rise to food poisoning, most often caused by micro-organisms. The Salmonella bacterium is undoubtedly one of the best known of these.

8 Feb 2007

Antibiotic doses could be reduced by up to 50 times using new approach

Steven Hagens, previously at the University of Vienna, told Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI, that certain bacteriophages, a type of virus that infects bacteria, can boost the effectiveness of antibiotics gentamicin, gramacidin or tetracycline.

29 Jan 2007

New understanding of the hit-and-run tactics used by infectious bacteria

New research from scientists at the University of Cambridge has the potential to radically change our understanding of how infection spreads around the body and improve the methods used to control it.

22 Jan 2007

Salmonella traced to tomatoes

Health officials in the U.S. say that the recent outbreak of Salmonella food poisoning there probably came tomatoes which were served in restaurants.

6 Nov 2006

Explaining how E. coli reached spinach fields not an easy task

It appears that California State health officials are at a loss to explain the source of a nationwide outbreak of E. coli food poisoning.

16 Oct 2006

Canadians paralysed after drinking carrot juice

Carrot juice which was withdrawn from the market late last month is thought to be responsible for the illness of two Canadians who are paralyzed and are severely ill in hospital.

9 Oct 2006

Contaminated spinach products recalled

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says two more companies have recalled their products, because they may contain spinach linked to a food poisoning outbreak, which has caused serious illness and at least one death.

25 Sep 2006

Study shows how the plague bacteria Yersinia pestis causes disease

The bacteria responsible for the plague and some forms of food poisoning "paralyze" the immune system of their hosts in an unexpected way, according to a new study in the September 8, 2006 issue of the journal Cell.

7 Sep 2006

Genotoxic bacteria in the digestive tract

Escherichia coli is a commensal bacterium, which lives peacefully in our digestive tract. However, certain strains are pathogenic and are frequently incriminated in a broad spectrum of infections, affecting both farmed animals and humans (diarrhoea, urinary tract infections, food poisoning, septicaemia, neonatal meningitis, etc.).

16 Aug 2006

FDA develops cost-effective way to identify bioterror agents used in hoax incidents

Researchers at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) are developing a quick, cost-effective way to screen for and identify bioterror agents and other substances used in hoax incidents.

3 Aug 2006