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More food poisoning chances in summer

ABU DHABI - Food items get easily spoiled during summer and if not taken extreme care can lead to food poisoning, warn health experts in the city.

Residents are advised to double check half-cooked food, raw meat and other non-veg items, eggs, milk products and juices before consuming them as they are the most susceptible to contamination. Infants, small children, old and sick people and pregnant women are more at risk of getting affected as their immune system is weaker.

"Cooked food kept in room temperature should be consumed ideally within two hours or to a maximum of four hours. After that the bacteria in the food gets multiplied and will produce toxins, which are extremely harmful," said Dr Rajeev Gupta, a consultant cardiologist at the Ahalia Hospital.

Baby products like cereals, bottle milk, fresh juices etc. should be consumed immediately and the left-overs discarded. Keeping them prepared for even a few hours, especially while travelling, can lead to stomach upsets, diarrhoea and vomiting.

Even the refrigerated food can turn dangerous if kept for long hours or more than a day, which is a common practice among the many residents in the UAE. "We advise people against eating food that has been left in the refrigerator for more than 24 hours and also to constantly check that the temperature is between four to eight degrees.

There are many bacteria and micro organisms that continue to proliferate as they are cold resistant," said the doctor. "Recently these bacteria have been implicated as the cause for developing Cronhn's Diseases (chronic inflammatory disease involving gastro-intestinal tract), which are characterised by pain in abdomen, vomiting, intermittent loose motion and loss of weight," explained Dr Gupta. He also underlined the fact that Cronhn's disease, which was once uncommon in the UAE is recently widely seen due to the increased consumption of refrigerated food.

According to him with the start of the summer there has been a considerable increase in the number of cases with food poisoning and food sickness resulting from eating bad food. "The majority of cases that we attend to in our hospital is related with eating out, especially non-vegetarian food."

According to a study bacteria causes most cases of food sickness. There are more than 250 known food borne diseases, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Every year, these diseases kill more than 5,000 people and make about 76 million people in the US sick, sending 325,000 to the hospital.

First symptoms of food sickness include nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhoea and if spotted with any of these, residents are advised to consult a physician at the earliest rather than resorting to self-treatment.