GEORGE TOWN: Bacillus cereus spores can survive cooking, and cooked food left for too long can allow the bacteria to multiply and cause food poisoning.<\/p>\n
The bacterium is widely found in the environment, but the risk arises when cooked food is not properly stored, allowing the spores to germinate and the bacteria to multiply.<\/p>\n
Some strains produce toxins that can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach cramps.<\/p>\n
Penang Health Department director Dr Zulhizzam Abdullah (pic) said prepared food should ideally be eaten within four hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not want people to keep leftovers for too long and still consume them,\u201d he said during the Malaysian Society for Quality in Health 7th Edition Full Accreditation Award Ceremony for Loh Guan Lye Specialists Centre here yesterday.<\/p>\n
He was commenting on a case involving spaghetti carbonara contaminated with Bacillus cereus.<\/p>\n
A food seller was fined RM500, in default one month\u2019s jail, by the Butterworth Magistrate\u2019s Court on Sept 10 under the Food Act 1983.<\/p>\n
Dr Zulhizzam advised consumers to check food for changes in appearance, smell or taste before eating it.<\/p>\n
He said the condition of contaminated food could vary depending on how it was handled and how long it was kept.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there are any changes, we advise consumers not to eat the suspected food.<\/p>\n
\u201cFood handlers should undergo training and follow safe food preparation practices,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Penang Health Department has taken action against two other food sellers over ready-to-eat contaminated food.<\/p>\n
One was fined RM500, in default one month\u2019s jail, by the Butterworth Magistrate\u2019s Court on Sept 15 for selling ayam percik contaminated with Salmonella.<\/p>\n
Another was fined RM200, in default two days\u2019 jail, by the Jawi Magistrate\u2019s Court on Sept 17 for selling a Vietnamese roll contaminated with Salmonella.<\/p>\n
Salmonella is among the most common causes of food poisoning worldwide.<\/p>\n
Infection is usually caused by consuming raw or undercooked meat, poultry and eggs or egg products, or drinking unpasteurised milk.<\/p>\n
Symptoms of salmonella infection can include diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, fever, nausea, vomiting, chills and headache.<\/p>\n
Dr Zulhizzam said the department regularly inspected food premises and took samples when necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor any food poisoning case, we will investigate. If there is a need for enforcement action, we will take the necessary action.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GEORGE TOWN: Bacillus cereus spores can survive cooking, and cooked food left for too long can allow the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[64,63,466001,1592,16829,133344,94261,96735,137,532,228813,60594,1734,21887],"class_list":["post-897288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bacillus-cereus","tag-bacteria","tag-cooking","tag-diarrhoea","tag-food-poisoning","tag-food-storage","tag-health","tag-nutrition","tag-penang-health-department","tag-salmonella","tag-toxins","tag-vomiting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}