Food Poisoning and Food Infection 279 



desirable balance of available food substances, and hence they are 

 not commonly implicated in food-borne outbreaks. Any food, 

 however, under a given set of conditions may become contaminated 

 by carriers with living organisms capable of causing severe food- 

 borne infections. 



Food poisoning is characterized by a sudden onset with one 

 or more of the following symptoms: abdominal pain, headache, 

 nausea, vomitins;, and diarrhea, usually within two to twenty-four 

 hours after ingestion of the food, although longer incubation 

 periods may be true for some of the bacterial infections. 



CANNED GOODS 



When considering the potential danger of canned goods in food 

 poisoning, it is necessary to think in terms of commercially canned 

 and home-canned foods. Because of the high temperature and 

 the long processing time employed by commercial canners, the 

 amount of spoilage found in the millions of cans of food marketed 

 annually is virtually infinitesimal. On the other hand, home- 

 canned foods are probably responsible for proportionately higher 

 numbers of gastric upsets, sometimes with fatal results. 



The tin can has revolutionized home life, and even though it is 

 frequently remarked that many families would starve should the 

 housewife lose the can opener, our diets are better balanced and 

 more interesting because of the wider selection of foods available 

 to us in cans and in frozen form all year round, rather than just 

 during the growing season. 



An old belief still persists that once a tin can of food has 

 been opened, the contents should be removed immediately to pre- 

 vent tin poisoning. While it is true that flavors may develop in 

 time when foods are stored in open cans, the danger from food 

 poisoning is no greater than it is for foods stored in bowls or dishes. 

 In fact, a tin can will probably be cleaner than many dishes. It 

 is the types and the numbers of organisms present in the foods, 

 not the tin container itself, that determine whether the food will 

 cause poisoning when ingested. Some cans are lacquered or 

 enameled on the inside, and preference is shown for this type of 



