Why does food poisoning happens if heat is supposed to kill bacteria/parasites?
In: Biology
1) Food poisoning is often caused by the toxins bacteria produce as waste. Heat does not destroy these toxins, so if they have already reached a level that is dangerous to humans cooking does not do any good to prevent illness.
2) Contamination can occur after cooking has ended.
the bacteria can produce toxins which are not destroyed by heat from what I read earlier (I think my friend also mentioned this awhile back).
1) Not all bacteria die in cooking (also depends on cooking type e.g. If it’s pressure cooked or not) and they survive as a spore such as clostridium perfringens and bacillis cereus.
2) some bacteria produce heat stable toxins that cause food poisoning regardless if the bacteria themselves are dead after. Such as staph aureus.
3) some bacteria survive due to insufficient cooking such as salmonella and Vibrio parahaemolyticus.
4) some contaminations happen after cooking. Such as when you cut the raw meat with a knife then use it to cut the cooked meat without proper washing or when kebab shops keep the shaved off meat in a dish for hours and hours out in the open getting splashed by contaminants.
That’s all I can think of now, but I’m sure there are other mechanisms (also I only talked about bacteria here)
Bacteria, much like humans, will eat and poop. It’s the bacterial poop that causes most of the problems associated with food poisoning and not the bacteria themselves. And while you can kill the bacteria and the parasites by boiling or baking them, if they were in your food long enough for their poop to build up, the food becomes toxic.
Lots and lots of ways:
1. re-contamination. E.G. the cooked pork-chop comes in contact with a surface that was holding uncooked pork. It’s pretty easy for this to happen in a large kitchen if protocols are not well followed (or don’t exist!) to prevent this.
2. undercooking.
3. a non-bacterial toxin of some sort – these are often waste products of bacteria or any critter that has infested a product before it was cooked. Too much of that is bad for you, even if it’s not “alive”.
4. Dishes, utensils, etc.
What makes you sick isn’t necessarily the bacteria themselves, but all of the toxic materials they produce as they eat and reproduce. You can kill the bacteria by heating up the food, but all of the nasty stuff they created is still there. Essentially your food is covered in bacteria poo.
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