There are two diseases we all should know about which can be caused by eating contaminated food. Although they're not common they can cause serious problems in some people including children, pregnant women, elderly people and people with conditions that lower their immunity.
Some foods are more likely to be contaminated with a germ called listeria.
This isn't a problem for everyone - healthy people can usually eat food contaminated by this germ without becoming ill. Although this disease usually causes only mild flu-like symptoms in pregnant women, it can affect her baby, causing premature birth, stillbirth, or infection in a newborn baby. Last year 23 children became seriously ill in South Australia after eating a type of salami made of fermented meat. One child died and some of the others suffered permanent kidney damage as a result. Similar cases of this disease have happened in the USA when children have eaten undercooked hamburger meat.