Foodborne illness (also foodborne disease) is any illness resulting from the consumption of food. Foodborne illness is commonly called food poisoning, even though the physiological effects of foodborne illness are not always caused by poisons (toxins). True food poisoning occurs when a person ingests a contaminating chemical or a natural toxin, while most cases of foodborne illness are caused by a variety of foodborne pathogenic bacteria, viruses, prions or parasites that contaminate food. Such contamination usually arises from improper handling, preparation, or food storage. Good hygiene practices before, during, and after food preparation can reduce the chances of contracting an illness. The action of monitoring food to ensure that it will not cause foodborne illness is known as food safety. Foodborne disease can also be caused by a large variety of toxins that affect the environment. For foodborne illness caused by chemicals, see Food contaminants.Foodborne illness can also be caused by the presence of pesticides or medicines in food, or by unintentionally consuming naturally toxic substances like poisonous mushrooms or reef fish. Some could even come from the skin and nose, like staphylococcus aureus, which could lead to death.

Even a cursory look at large scale chicken processing techniques reveals them to be pretty messy, to put it diplomatically. And this recent data on salmonella prevalence isn’t exactly encouraging. The bottom line is that salmonella and other food-borne bacteria are commonly found in and on raw chicken.

72 people contracted Salmonella food poisoning after eating contaminated roast beef at an Arby's in GA. 26% of those infected were hospitalized, which is very unusual. The board of health cultured Salmonella bacteria from a meat slicer and roast beef at the restaurant. Arby's needs to take responsibilty by paying medical bills and lost wages.

Doreen Jones (not her real name) thought she had a nasty bout of the flu but it was so bad that she wound up in hospital. Her doctor figured she had food poisoning so it was a process of elimination—both physically and mentally—to determine the cause. "I had eaten other foods besides a couple of Banquet pot pies but the doctor had heard about salmo

In February, ConAgra Foods recalled Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter produced at a Georgia manufacturing plant due to salmonella contamination cases. Now, 39 food-poisoning suits involving dozens of litigants have mushroomed into multidistrict litigation in Atlanta federal court.

Cole and Sydney Scheels represent the human face of growing U.S. concern over the safety of food imported from China. The two young children, two of three triplets, recently became seriously ill with salmonella poisoning attributed to snack food containing tainted Chinese ingredients.