ABSTRACT
I. BACKGROUND Infectious diseases that spread through food, so-called foodborne illnesses, are a common, distressing, and sometimes life-threatening problem for millions of people in the United States and around the world (Headrick and Tollefson, 1998). Foodborne disease is caused by consuming contaminated foods or beverages. Many different disease-causing microbes, or pathogens, can contaminate foods, creating many different foodborne infections (Ryan et al., 1996). More than 250 different foodborne diseases have been described, with most of these diseases being infections caused by a variety of bacteria, viruses, and parasites (Baird-Parker, 1994). Other diseases are caused by poisonous elements in the form of harmful toxins (Notermans and Wernars, 1991; Notermans and Tatini 1993) or chemicals that have contaminated the food, for example, poisonous mushrooms. These varying diseases have many different symptoms, meaning that there is no one "syndrome" that can be described as foodborne illness. The microbe or toxin enters the body through the gastrointestinal tract, often the site of the first symptoms, with nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea being common symptoms in many foodborne diseases.
