Between 25 and 80 million cases of food poisoning are reported each year in the United States. This makes food poisoning by far the greatest food safety problem in the United States.
Some microorganisms cause food to spoil making it look, smell, or taste bad.
But these spoilage organisms don't make you sick. Food poisoning organisms, on the other hand, are very difficult to detect in food. Food contaminated with these organisms can seem perfectly normal. The most common type of food poisoning is the result of a food infection. When these organisms reach the intestines, they multiply and produce intestinal irritation that causes pain and diarrhea.