The concept of foodborne illness

Foodborne diseases mainly refer to diseases caused by the intake of toxic and harmful foods. These diseases are mainly divided into toxic and infectious diseases, which often lead to intestinal infectious diseases and food poisoning. In addition, zoonotic infectious diseases are also relatively common. On the one hand, they pose a great threat to human health. On the other hand, they are also a prominent public health and safety issue, which often leads to mass outbreaks.

The concept of foodborne illness

The World Health Organization believes that any disease that is caused by various pathogenic factors that enter the human body through ingestion, usually infectious or toxic, is called foodborne disease. It refers to poisoning or infectious diseases caused by pathogens entering the human body through food transmission methods and pathways. This concept does not include some diet-related chronic diseases and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, etc. However, some people in the international community also classify these diseases as foodborne diseases. As the name suggests, all diseases related to food intake (including infectious and non-infectious diseases) are foodborne diseases.

Diseases are divided into four categories: 1. Food poisoning: refers to acute and subacute diseases that occur after eating food that is contaminated by or contains toxic and harmful substances; 2. Food-related allergic diseases; 3. Intestinal infectious diseases (such as dysentery), zoonoses (foot-and-mouth disease), parasitic diseases (trichinosis), etc. infected by food; 4. Diseases with chronic poisoning as the main feature caused by secondary large or long-term small intake of certain toxic and harmful substances.