b'Foodborne IllnessWhat are foodborne illnesses?Foodborne illnesses are a serious health problem: The U.S. Center for Disease Control estimates that 3,000 people die in the U.S. each year from foodborne illnesses. Additionally, 48 million people get sick from unsafe food, 128,000 of them so sick that they need to be hospitalized.Any time people get sick from food they ate, they tend to describe it as food poisoning. However, not all food related sickness is actually food poisoning. Foodborne illnesses can be divided into two main categories: food infections and food poisonings.True food poisoning occurs when a person eats food that contains some kind of toxin. It could be a chemical, a poison, or a bacteria that contaminated the food somehow during preparation. Or, it could be a naturally occurring toxin, such as those found in foods like poisonous mushrooms. People with food poisoning usually begin showing symptoms such as vomiting within hours after eating.Food infections are the most common cause of foodborne illness. These infections are caused by germs that either grew on the food, or were spread to the food by human contact. Symptoms of foodborne infections might begin as soon as several hours after eating, or they might not show up for several weeks. Symptoms can include fever, headache, stomach ache, vomiting, and diarrhea.8'