Column | Food Safety Discussions Should Move Beyond Samples and Outbreaks

When we think of unsafe food, we usually picture an episode of food poisoning: a meal followed by vomiting, diarrhoea and perhaps a visit to the emergency department. That is one part of the story and often the easiest to recognise. The more troubling part is what happens when exposure causes no immediate illness. A person may feel perfectly well while a harmful substance in the food they consume quietly increases the risk of disease over many years.

Food contamination and adulteration are related but different. Contamination can happen when bacteria enter food through unsafe water, poor handling or improper storage. It can also involve naturally occurring toxins or chemical residues. Adulteration is deliberate: a substance is added, substituted or concealed to increase profit or to make a product appear more attractive. The distinction matters for accountability. From a patient’s point of view, however, the central question is the same: what has entered the body, in what quantity, and for how long?

The immediate effects are familiar to most doctors. Contaminated food or water can cause diarrhoea, abdominal pain, vomiting and fever. Many people recover with fluids and appropriate care. Others, particularly young children, older adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immunity, can become seriously ill. Severe dehydration may affect the kidneys and certain infections can enter the bloodstream. Some food-borne infections can also leave complications after the initial illness has passed.

The danger is that a brief illness may be dismissed too readily. If several members of a family fall ill after the same meal, or a patient develops high fever, blood in the stool, persistent vomiting or signs of dehydration, medical assessment is important. Antibiotics are not the answer to every episode of diarrhoea. What matters first is assessing the person’s condition, replacing lost fluids and identifying those who need further investigation or hospital care.

Chemical exposure presents a different challenge. It does not always announce itself with stomach pain.

Consider aflatoxins—toxins produced by certain moulds that can contaminate poorly stored grains, nuts and other foods. Very high exposure can cause serious liver injury. Repeated exposure is also linked to liver cancer, with an especially high risk in people who have chronic hepatitis B. A family may never connect a liver disease diagnosed years later with the quality and storage of food consumed over time.

Heavy metals deserve similar attention. Lead exposure can harm multiple organs and is especially damaging to a child’s developing brain. Arsenic exposure through food and water, when sustained over years, is associated with skin disease and an increased risk of certain cancers, as well as other long-term health effects. These are not diagnoses a doctor can make simply by looking at a patient or hearing that they ate a particular food. They require careful evaluation and, crucially, reliable testing of the suspected source.

This is why we must be precise when discussing risk. Finding a hazardous substance somewhere in the food supply does not mean every serving will cause illness. The health effect depends on the substance, its concentration, the frequency and duration of exposure, and the person exposed. At the same time, the absence of an immediate symptom is no assurance of safety. Both exaggerated claims and casual reassurance can obscure the real problem.

Loss of Trust

There is another consequence we often overlook: loss of trust. People cannot inspect every ingredient, test every spice or trace every step between a farm and their kitchen. Nor can a doctor reliably identify the source of a chronic illness from symptoms alone. If a patient has liver disease, kidney problems or poor growth, there may be several possible causes. Food-related exposure should be considered when the history suggests it, but it should not be assumed without evidence. This uncertainty is precisely why food safety needs strong surveillance, laboratory capacity and timely investigation.

Prevention also has to begin well before food reaches the consumer. Safe water, responsible production, proper drying and storage, hygienic transport, temperature control and honest labelling are all part of the same chain. A breakdown at any point can undo the work done elsewhere. So, testing should be regular and risk-based, with particular attention to products and practices known to pose higher risks. When a problem is identified, tracing its source and removing affected products quickly is as important as detecting it.

Consumers do have a role though they cannot carry the entire burden. At home, basic habits remain valuable: wash hands and utensils, separate raw foods from cooked foods, cook thoroughly, refrigerate perishable items promptly and use safe water. Buy from sources that provide clear information, pay attention to packaging and storage and discard food that seems spoiled. These steps reduce many common infections, but they cannot reliably remove every chemical contaminant already present in a product.

For clinicians, asking about food and water exposure should be part of a careful history, especially when patients present with recurring illness or when several people in a household have similar symptoms. But resist the temptation to attribute every unexplained condition to “adulterated food”. A convincing diagnosis depends on the clinical picture and, where appropriate, laboratory and public-health evidence. Good medicine and good regulation share this need for evidence.

Discipline is Essential

The scale of the issue makes that discipline essential. The World Health Organisation’s latest estimates put the global burden of illness from unsafe food at hundreds of millions of cases each year, with young children bearing a disproportionate share. Yet, the figures describe only what can be measured. The slower consequences of repeated chemical exposure are much harder to count, and the person affected may never know where the exposure occurred.

India’s discussion on food safety should therefore move beyond the shocking individual sample or the occasional outbreak. Those events demand action, but a system protects public health only when it can prevent harm routinely, detect hazards early and respond credibly. For a patient, safety means the confidence that an ordinary meal will nourish rather than injure. That confidence must be earned every day, from production and testing to the food served at home.

(Views expressed are personal)

Gourdas Choudhuri is chairman, Dept. of Gastroenterology and Hepatobiliary Sciences, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon