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donutmedialab.com — Many people experience diarrhea or abdominal pain due to eating the wrong food. This digestive problem may be caused by the presence of salmonella bacteria in food, especially undercooked food.
So, you need to avoid foods that contain salmonella bacteria. However, is there a way to find out if salmonella is in food?
The dangers of salmonella in food
The presence of salmonella bacteria in the food you eat can cause you to suffer from gastroenteritis.
This can happen to you with symptoms of nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever, headache, chills, and blood in the stool.
You can experience these symptoms for two to seven days.
When you eat foods that contain salmonella bacteria, you will not immediately feel sick.
Pain will appear at least 2-3 days after you eat these foods. So, it may be difficult for you to know what foods are causing you pain.
You’ll have to remember what food you ate over the past three days, and this may not be easy to remember.
Besides being able to cause digestive problems, certain types of salmonella bacteria can also cause typhoid fever or better known as typhus.
This disease is caused by the bacteria Salmonella typhi which is contained in contaminated food.
Foods that are at risk of containing salmonella
Salmonella is a bacterium that lives in the intestines of many farm animals. You can become infected with salmonella bacteria when you eat food contaminated with animal feces that contain salmonella bacteria.
Some foods that can generally be contaminated with salmonella bacteria are as follows.
Raw meat, poultry and seafood
Feses bisa masuk ke dalam daging dan unggas mentah selama proses pemotongan. Sedangkan, makanan laut bisa terkontaminasi salmonella dari air yang terkontaminasi.
Raw eggs
In chickens infected with salmonella bacteria, the chickens can produce eggs that contain salmonella before the shell is formed.
That’s why salmonella bacteria can be contained in eggs. While the eggshell can actually be a barrier for eggs to be contaminated with salmonella bacteria from the outside.
Fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables can be contaminated with salmonella bacteria from contaminated water.
This contamination can occur during washing, processing with water, or coming into contact with contaminated raw meat or poultry.
Can you tell which foods contain salmonella?
Salmonella is a bacterium that can cause food poisoning if it enters your body. You need to avoid foods that contain salmonella.
However, to find out whether the food you eat contains salmonella bacteria or not, this is not an easy thing.
Salmonella bacteria in food certainly cannot be detected by just looking at the food or just smelling the food.
To determine the presence of salmonella bacteria in food, this can only be done by testing in a laboratory. Unfortunately, this is not a simple matter.
However, you can do several things as below to reduce your risk of getting food poisoning due to salmonella bacteria.
- Cook eggs until completely cooked, both egg whites and egg yolks.
- Cook whole meat to 63°C, ground beef to 71°C, and poultry to 74°C. This is because at that temperature most of the bacteria in food will die, thus minimizing your risk of catching an infection.
- Store hot and cold food separately.
- Do not leave food open for more than two hours.
- Separate cutting boards or other cooking utensils for raw and cooked foods.
- Clean eating and cooking utensils after using them.
- Always wash your hands before handling food.
