For example, tens of millions of people worldwide are affected annually by diarrheal diseases, a common proxy measure for foodborne illness.
Although some foodborne toxins, pesticides, and food additives may be carcinogenic if taken in sufficient quantity, it is primarily the foodstuffs themselves that are associated with cancer.
Adverse food reactions that do not involve the immune system, aside from foodborne infection or poisoning, are called food intolerances or sensitivities.
There are a number of different types of foodborne illnesses.
By contrast, certain other types of foodborne illnesses arise from ingestion of the infectious organisms or chemicals themselves and may take days to develop.
Although the incidence of foodborne illness is difficult to estimate, since many cases go unreported, the burden of illness is thought to be high.
Major foodborne illnesses, including salmonellosis and E. coli infections, are reportable diseases in many places, meaning that infections caused by those agents must be reported by physicians and medical laboratories to local, state, or national health departments.
Many laws regulating the production, transport, and preparation of food are intended to prevent foodborne illness and limit its consequences.
In a nursery school, with young children whose hygiene habits are undeveloped, outbreaks of dysentery and other bowel infections may occur, and among children who take their midday meal at school, foodborne infection caused by a breakdown in hygiene can sweep through entire classes of students.
During the 20th century public health advances such as disinfection of water supplies, pasteurization of milk, safe canning, widespread use of refrigeration, and improved food-safety practices eliminated typhoid fever, tuberculosis, and cholera, for example, as common foodborne diseases.
Most cases of foodborne illness are caused by agents such as bacteria, viruses, or parasites.
