Food fact file / Dr Joan Davies ; with further contributions by Chandra Morar.

"The bacteria which cause food poisoning get into our food, and thence into us, in a number of ways. They may come from healthy but infected animals and the food derived from them - meat, poultry, eggs and untreated milk. Less commonly they come from infected people. They are present in water contaminated with human sewage or farm effluents, and on crops exposed to such water. You have to assume that many of the raw materials that we bring into the kitchen are potentially contaminated with food poisoning bacteria. However, keeping the germs and the people apart is not as difficult as it might seem! We need to know a bit about the bacteria - their likes and dislikes - and ways of preventing them from ending up, alive and well, in the food we serve up to our family and friends."-- From Introduction.