Tainted potato salad sickening hundreds at a Communist political convention in Massillon, Ohio, and aboard a Washington DC cruise boat in separate incidents during a single week in 1932 drew national attention to the dangers of so-called "ptomaine poisoning" in the pages of the American news weekly, Time. Another newspaper article from 1944 told of more than 150 persons being hospitalized in Chicago with ptomaine poisoning apparently from rice pudding served by a chain of restaurants. Mechanism
Incubation period
The delay between the consumption of contaminated food and the appearance of the first symptoms of illness is called the incubation period. This ranges from hours to days (and rarely months or even years, such as in the case of listeriosis or bovine spongiform encephalopathy), depending on the agent, and on how much was consumed. If symptoms occur within one to six hours after eating the food, it suggests that it is caused by a bacterial toxin or a chemical rather than live bacteria. The long incubation period of many foodborne illnesses tends to cause those affected to attribute their symptoms to gastroenteritis.During the incubation period, microbes pass through the stomach into the intestine, attach to the cells lining the intestinal walls, and begin to multiply there. Some types of microbes stay in the intestine, some produce a toxin that is absorbed into the bloodstream, and some can directly invade the deeper body tissues. The symptoms produced depend on the type of microbe.
The same method was used regionally to rank the most important foodborne parasites in Europe ranking Echinococcus multilocularis of highest relevance, followed by Toxoplasma gondii and Trichinella spiralis. Regulatory steps
Food may be contaminated during all stages of food production and retailing. In order to prevent viral contamination, regulatory authorities in Europe have enacted several measures:
European Commission Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 of November 15, 2005
European Committee for Standardization (CEN): Standard method for the detection of norovirus and hepatitis A virus in food products (shellfish, fruits and vegetables, surfaces and bottled water)
CODEX Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH): Guideline for the application of general principles of food hygiene for the control of viruses in food

See also
References
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Further reading
Periodicals
International Journal of Food Microbiology, ISSN 0168-1605, Elsevier
Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, ISSN 1535-3141, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
Mycopathologia, ISSN 1573-0832 (electronic), ISSN 0301-486X (paper), Springer

Books
Hocking AD, Pitt JI, Samson RA, Thrane U (2005). Advances in Food Mycology. Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-28385-2. ISBN 978-0-387-28391-3 (electronic). Hobbs BC (1993). Food Poisoning and Food Hygiene. British Medical Bulletin. Vol. 7. Edward Arnold. pp. 167–70. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.bmb.a073825. ISBN 978-0-340-53740-4. PMID 14821218. Riemann HP, Cliver DO (2006). FoodBorne Infections and Intoxications. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-588365-8. Smith JL (2005). Fratamico PM, Bhunia AK, Smith JL (eds.). Foodborne Pathogens: Microbiology And Molecular Biology. Horizon Scientific Press. ISBN 978-1-904455-00-4.