Timeline for answer to What is the real risk of salmonella with modern food cleaning standards? by rumtscho
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| Jan 16, 2016 at 0:43 | comment | added | Wayfaring Stranger | CDC is a good place to look for this stuff: "Every year, Salmonella is estimated to cause one million foodborne illnesses in the United States, with 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 deaths." : cdc.gov/salmonella Those numbers put your chance at about 0.3% per year in the US. -It probably varies regionally. | |
| Jan 15, 2016 at 21:38 | comment | added | zerobane | From my limited experience or perspective; I get Montezuma's revenge or Delhi belly anytime I goto countries that have less then hygienic practices. But after being there for 2-3 months; I stop getting sick and seem to adapt. India is top on the list for getting me sick for at least 1 week. | |
| Jan 15, 2016 at 14:42 | comment | added | Escoce | To add, which is why sometimes in my answers and comments I will state "I'd be comfortable eating what you asked about, but I wouldn't serve it to someone else." | |
| Jan 15, 2016 at 14:40 | comment | added | Escoce | @rumtscho that's true, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that a body becomes accustomed to baseline levels of contamination. I was listening to NPR one day and they were discussing food hygiene and one example bit was about how a family always made this particular stew during the winter which was kept traditionally on the stove, reheating and adding fresh ingredients each night, but never cleaning the Dutch oven out really which we know can add great flavor but can also contaminate the food. The family seemingly never had issues, but whenever guests were served, it made them ill. | |
| Jan 14, 2016 at 20:13 | comment | added | rumtscho♦ | We must remember that back before refrigeration was common, foodborne illness of all stages of severity was also common, from people getting a bit of diarrhea 2-3 times a year and not even thinking "I'm sick", to cities being decimated by especially unpleasant strains (typhoid Mary etc.). So, it is certain that if we try to rely on our immune systems only, we will have a much higher incidence of illness than with the current refrigeration practices. The immunity approach might have some truth behind it, but it does not beat the refrigeration one. | |
| Jan 14, 2016 at 20:10 | comment | added | rumtscho♦ | @SeanHart to be fair, both scenarios are found in reality. Either lots of bacteria live in your food and produce toxins there -> you eat it -> you get sick, or a few bacteria live in your food -> you eat it -> they start making colonies in your body and excreting toxins in it -> you get sick. Immunity can prevent the second scenario from happening. But the immune system is a very complicated thing, and 1) I don't know if people can develop immunity to the relevant microorganisms in this case, and 2) if they can, it will prevent some, but not all, cases. | |
| Jan 14, 2016 at 20:06 | comment | added | Sean Hart | @zerobane Foodborne illnesses are not an infections by the bacteria that contaminate the food. Rather, it is a toxic reaction to the waste product left behind by microbial activity on the contaminated food. One can develop a tolerance for those toxins, but it is not an immune response. | |
| Jan 14, 2016 at 18:30 | comment | added | rumtscho♦ | @zerobane I don't know how much antibodies are worth it in this case, I'd let the experts decide it. "Countries that eat raw eggs and never have an issue" sounds like a very strong claim. Do you have any statistics for it? To my knowledge, all countries have outbreaks of foodborne illness, plus a ton of cases which never get reported because people just stay at home. | |
| Jan 14, 2016 at 18:26 | comment | added | zerobane | always wondered if not every being exposed to the bateria will make us more suspect-able to death from it; as our body doesnt have anti-bodies. Could someone build a tolerance; ie; many countries that eat raw eggs and never have an issue. | |
| Jan 14, 2016 at 17:57 | comment | added | Willem van Rumpt | Exactly. It's like declaring Russian roulette kills in 100% of the cases, or it's safe practice, depending on the end result of your first run. | |
| Jan 14, 2016 at 17:14 | history | edited | rumtscho♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 14, 2016 at 17:04 | history | answered | rumtscho♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |