Everything You Need To Know About Salmonella Poisoning

Everybody hates getting sick, especially when sickness is caused by something that you’ve eaten, and should have been entirely preventable.

One common enemy behind food-related illnesses is Salmonella, but how much do you really know about it?

Well, that’s why this article is here, to educate and inform you about what Salmonella is, how it presents, where you might have got it, and how to prevent it in the future.

What Is Salmonella?

Salmonella is a kind of bacteria that causes salmonellosis, which is a kind of gastroenteritis. In reality, there are thousands of different kinds of Salmonella bacteria, found in both domestic and wild animals, that can make people sick. Sometimes, the strain of bacteria is a mild one, which causes only symptoms of food-borne illness. Other times, and depending on the patient, the bacteria can be incredibly damaging, even fatal.

What Does It Do To You?

Symptoms of salmonellosis from Salmonella can occur between 6 and 72 hours after the bacteria enters the body. This longer time period can make it difficult for people to figure out what it is that made them sick. The symptoms of the condition include:

• diarrhoea, sometimes containing blood
• fever
• headache
• stomach cramps
• nausea
• vomiting
• dehydration, a common symptom in younger and older patients.

In most cases, the symptoms of Salmonella will have stopped 4 to 7 days after they started, but the bacteria can remain in the body and show up in the fecal matter for some time.

For the most part, treatment involves dealing with the symptoms, but external medical intervention may be required in cases of extreme dehydration, common when diarrhoea is experienced over several days.

How Do You Get It?

You get salmonellosis by ingesting the Salmonella bacteria via the mouth, so there are a few ways this might happen. People usually get the illness from eating meat that is undercooked, particularly poultry and raw or undercooked eggs. Another common way that people come into contact with Salmonella is by eating cooked or ready-to-eat foods that have been contaminated, usually because they came into contact with surfaces that have also been used for raw foods like chicken. This is called cross-contamination, and it can even happen in your own refrigerator.

The bacteria can also be spread person-to-person. For example, if someone is suffering from Salmonella, they will have the bacteria in their fecal matter. So, if they don’t wash their hands properly, that bacteria can be spread and make its way onto food that others eat. Pets and farm animals can also be carriers of Salmonella, often with no symptoms, so touching these animals and not washing your hands properly is likely to spread the bacteria.

Why Do You Get It From Vegetables and Fruit?

The assumption used to be that you got Salmonella from incorrectly handled meat and poultry products, but it seems more and more common for the bug to be linked to other foods, including vegetables and leaf products. The reason for this is that although the Salmonella bacteria thrives when animals are kept in unsanitary conditions, it also loves the surface of fruits and vegetables.

If the water used on crops has been drawn from wells near livestock, then fecal matter from the livestock that are infected with Salmonella will get into the plants. Then there’s the manure that’s often used to fertilise plants, which can lead to Salmonella bacteria being transferred. In some cases, although quite rarely, bacteria that is in the soil is absorbed by the roots of the plant and remains inside the plant’s ‘veins’ where it’s impossible to remove no matter how it’s washed.

Can You Prevent It?

There are some cases where an infection with Salmonella bacteria can be prevented, and some cases where it can not. In your own home, you should always:

• cook meat all the way through,
• avoid purchasing and eating dirty or cracked eggs,
• maintain food handling procedures to avoid cross-contamination,

• wash hands and clean preparation surfaces on a regular basis,
• wash fruits and vegetables prior to eating, and
• keep yourself and your children away from others when suffering from salmonellosis.

However, you should also be aware that Salmonella does occur in pre-washed and ready-to-eat foods, and may be present in any kind of mass-production environment such as the ones through which we source many convenience foods, such as pre-made burgers and even fast food.

Ultimately, Salmonella bacteria is always going to be a risk, but it can be avoided as long as appropriate precautions are taken by those at all levels. If you think that you have Salmonella, we recommend visiting your doctor so they can confirm the condition with a stool sample and you can treat it appropriately.

Have you ever had a Salmonella poisoning?