Salmon with homemade mayonnaise, tiramisu, stuffed chicken: Loud meals that, in addition to the almost inevitable weight gain, carry a potential danger – infection with salmonella. What exactly salmonella is and how dangerous it really is, we explain here.
What is salmonella?
Salmonella is a rod-shaped bacteria from the enterobacteria family and is one of the most common pathogens worldwide. Salmonella can be the cause of illness in both humans and animals. An infectious gastrointestinal inflammation caused by salmonella is called salmonellosis. In addition to poor hygiene or contaminated drinking water, food infected with salmonella can also cause salmonellosis. Therefore, this can also be referred to as a foodborne infection. More than 2,500 types of Salmonella can be distinguished. The most common human diseases caused by Salmonella are emetic diarrhea caused by Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium, typhoid fever caused by Salmonella Typhi, and paratyphoid fever caused by Salmonella Paratyphi. In Germany, salmonellosis is a notifiable disease. Every year, around 16,000 people contract salmonellosis. However, experts estimate the number of unreported cases to be higher.
Salmonella – persistent bacteria.
Salmonella survive outside the human – or animal – body for weeks. In dried feces, they can even be detected for over two and a half years. The bacteria like it warm and humid. Under these conditions, they multiply at breakneck speed. Heat and sunlight or UV radiation accelerate the death of the pathogens. Freezing does not kill salmonella, but the bacteria multiply more slowly at temperatures below six degrees Celsius.
Infection through food
Salmonella is often transmitted through animal foods. The pathogens are especially often found on the following foods:
- Raw or undercooked eggs and egg dishes such as mayonnaise or tiramisu.
- Raw meats such as pork, chicken, or other poultry
- Raw sausage varieties such as Mett
- Seafood
- Ice cream
The insidious thing about salmonella is that even when there is an extreme bacterial infestation, the food seems perfectly normal. That’s because you can’t see, smell or taste the bacteria.
Avoiding a salmonella infection through food
To avoid a salmonella infection, foods such as raw chicken should be heated to 75 degrees Celsius core temperature for at least ten minutes. At 55 degrees Celsius, it takes as little as an hour to sufficiently reduce the risk of salmonella infection. Also risky are foods containing raw eggs. What makes raw eggs in particular so dangerous is that the salmonellae on the eggshell multiply rapidly outside the cold temperatures of the refrigerator and do not die off without heat. In addition, the older the egg, the more porous the shell becomes and the easier it is for salmonella to get inside. Therefore, only use fresh eggs to prepare dishes with raw eggs, then store them as cold as possible and consume them quickly.
Infection due to poor hygiene
Unhygienic food storage that is too warm or too long, as well as an interrupted cold chain during food transport, favor the multiplication of Salmonella. By touching or processing infected food, other food as well as objects or people can be infected by the salmonellae. Person-to-person transmission is possible but rare. Salmonella infection through human contact then occurs via smear infection: the pathogens from the intestine are passed on to other people via minute stool residues on the hands of the infected person. From the hand, the salmonella then enters the mouth and causes infection.
Risk groups for salmonellosis
Up to a certain number of germs, the human organism can cope with them. However, from a number of 10,000 to 1,000,000 germs, the body can no longer fight them – one then suffers noticeably from an infection. The higher the number of bacteria, the more severe the course of the disease. Infants and children, the elderly and people with weakened defenses are particularly susceptible to infection.Here, even less than 100 germs can trigger one. People with reduced gastric acid production are also particularly at risk, since in such cases more salmonellae can enter the intestine.
How dangerous is salmonella?
Salmonella poisoning can cause the most severe gastrointestinal diseases (gastroenteritis) as well as typhoid or paratyphoid fever. Salmonellosis is usually manifested by severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and fever, and in extreme cases can lead to death in children and sick or elderly persons. However, it is also possible to experience no symptoms despite infection. The salmonella pathogens of typhoid and paratyphoid enter the bloodstream through the intestines, so that the whole body is affected by the bacteria. The result is often blood poisoning (sepsis), which can also be fatal.
Important: if salmonella is suspected, go to the doctor
Even though in most cases the salmonella infection clears up after about a week, going to the doctor is important. Diarrhea causes loss of fluids and minerals, which are important to replace. Laboratory examination of stool samples will allow detection of Salmonella. Stool tests are also mandatory for follow-up – until three samples in a row are free of pathogens. This is because even after symptoms have resolved, you can still be contagious for several weeks.
Salmonellosis in pregnancy
If pregnant women have contracted salmonellosis, there is a risk of premature birth. A severe course of the infection can generally pose a risk to the health of the baby. Therefore, even and especially in this case, medical treatment is absolutely necessary.
Precaution – 7 tips to protect against salmonella.
You can protect yourself primarily through good hygiene in the kitchen:
- Raw meat must be well cooked.
- Foods such as mayonnaise, which are prepared with raw eggs, should be avoided altogether if possible.
- Foods that may contain salmonella should be stored strictly separate from other foods.
- Hands should be washed before and after food preparation.
- It is advisable to change kitchen towels frequently.
- Kitchen utensils should be rinsed hot after use.
- Defrost water from frozen meat should not be brought into contact with other foods.
If you notice symptoms in yourself or in your immediate environment that indicate salmonellosis, please contact your family doctor immediately. Another preventive measure is to vaccinate livestock such as poultry, cattle and pigs against Salmonella serotypes Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium. In addition, there are numerous (hygiene) guidelines for owners of farm animals. Nevertheless, these measures only reduce the risk of salmonella infestation of animals and cannot completely eliminate it.
