Question

The cause of food poisoning is
(a) Bacteria
(b) Virus
(c) Toxins
(d) All of the above

Answer 1

Hint: Poisoning - a foodborne illness occurs because of eating contaminated food. Infectious organisms such as bacteria, virus, parasites are main reasons for it. It lasts for about 1 to 2 days.

Complete answer:
Let’s discuss the options and find out the correct answer
Food poisoning is the condition in which there are certain substances in the food consumed that results in infection. Food poisoning happens because of food contaminated with bacteria . Increased growth of bacteria in any type of food can result in vomiting, diarrhoea and other symptoms of poisoning. Common types of bacteria are Salmonella, Campylobacter, Clostridium, E. coli, etc.
There are viruses which can cause food poisoning. Hepatitis,adenoviruses,sapoviruses,astroviruses and Noroviruses are common viruses which contaminate the food and result in food poisoning. Over 19 million cases of food poisoning each year are caused by norovirus also called Norwalk virus.Viruses do not grow or make their own energy and can only replicate using a living host cell. They are totally inert outside a host cell, not have the ability of reproducing or carrying out other metabolic processes and must induce living cells to replicate. Enterotoxins are certain bacteria which are released by them like the Clostridium which causes effects of food poisoning.
The correct option is ‘(d) All of the above’.

Note: Cholera, Salmonellosis etc are the bacteria causing food infection. Norovirus, Hepatitis-A etc are the viruses which cause food infection. Cholera toxin, Thermolabile toxin Thermostable toxin are the toxins which cause food infection.