Micro-Organisms
Was
it something I ate?
Every year about nine-million people in Britain get food poisoning. That’s around one in every seven of us! You may have had it yourself.
It can make you really sick. You get diarrhoea, your head hurts and your muscles ache. You can’t seem to get out of the bathroom. All in all, it makes you feel pretty terrible.
Why do people get food poisoning? Well, it’s all because something they ate was contaminated with unfriendly micro-organisms, so small they didn’t even see them. So where were they?
There are a number of potential suspects. Perhaps they were on a piece of food that hadn’t been cooked properly (if it had, the micro-organisms wouldn’t survive). Or maybe they were on a food preparation surface that hadn’t been cleaned (if it had, they wouldn’t have survived). Or did someone forget to wash their hands properly before making dinner (if they had, the micro-organisms wouldn’t have survived).
The food industry has control measures in place to prevent the growth of food poisoning organisms. But it’s up to consumers to handle these foods properly in order to avoid food-borne illness.
Biological bouncers
Scientists from a giant dairy company have developed a cocktail of vigilante micro-organisms that can kill off potentially deadly bacteria.
The micro-organisms can be added to food – such as milk, cheese and yogurt – and, once inside the human digestive system, they target and destroy bacteria responsible for food poisoning.
A patent has been granted for the concoction of microbes, so you could soon be gobbling some biological bouncers to battle bad bacteria.
The good, the bad and the in-betweens
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| This man is suffering from impetigo Image supplied by dermatology.co.uk |
Micro-organisms (fungi, bacteria and viruses) are the cause of many diseases. Food poisoning is one of them. A few others include athlete’s foot, impetigo, measles, tuberculosis and – in animals – foot and mouth disease. We try to kill these as they can be harmful.
But most micro-organisms are harmless. Many types are very useful and we want them to grow. In fact, we grow them ourselves. They’re used to make certain foodstuffs and medicines, like bread and antibiotics.
Impetigo is a skin infection caused by the golden coloured bacteria staphylococcus aureus.
Finally, just to confuse matters, there are micro-organisms that have a good function (like the bacteria in your gut that helps digest food) but that could become harmful (if that gut bacteria got into an open wound you could get gangrene). Micro-organisms like these need to be contained.