Dubai: Food poisoning could be under-reported due to gaps in detection, surveillance and reporting, experts have warned.
Dubai food control and public health officials raised the issue on Tuesday at the Dubai International Food Safety Conference.
A presentation slide at the conference showed that last year in Dubai there were 550 cases of food poisoning in which the agent was unconfirmed.
Meanwhile, over 1,120 cases of suspected food-borne diseases were reported, but not all of which were confirmed.
No data for this year was presented during the morning sessions of the conference on Tuesday.
However, officials said actual cases could be higher as some patients fail to report illness after eating food unfit for consumption.
By the time symptoms appear — sometimes after days — they may not be able to pinpoint a cause.
Some doctors also occasionally fail to diagnose food-borne illnesses by not testing stool samples, which are not ordered in many cases, officials added.
Even when they do find evidence, some doctors hesitate to alert food control authorities in time — critical when trying to trace the disease source, which can be an ingredient, contaminant or the result of poor storage or cooking practices.
Diarrhoeal diseases, a major percentage of which are food-borne, kill about 2.2 million worldwide annually, the World Health Organisation says.
Dr Fatima Omar, specialist registrar at the preventive service centre of the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), said: “Like the watchman of a prison, we don’t want any disease to escape. But in about half of the poisoning cases [in Dubai in 2013] it was not confirmed what the agent was.
“The doctor may be reluctant to order a stool sample. It’s known each food type has certain [associated] diseases.”
To establish a baseline for the diseases, the UAE Ministry of Health is drafting a national directory for common food-borne diseases in the UAE, said Mohammad Alam, a senior official at DHA’s public health and safety department.
“We [DHA] are also planning to do a survey in hospitals, asking how many of us ask for a stool sample when there are symptoms like diarrhoea or vomiting,” Alam added.
“We also need DNA analysis of the stool and food at [suspected] restaurants to see a match. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to link them.”
Alam said it is possible some patients are infected abroad but show symptoms after landing in the UAE.
He also downplayed the typical reaction of many patients to blame “my last meal at the restaurant” for feeling sick.
“Did you check your food at home? Do you have expired products? Did you keep your refrigerator door open? We have to be more realistic and scientific, the reason could be domestic.”
Bobby Krishna, principal food inspection officer at Dubai Municipality’s food control department, said restaurants and hotels must also call in any suspected poisoning incident.
He added: “A delay in notification is a delay is investigation. In one case, we were notified when the damage was already done, people were sick. In another case, a catering company had to be shut down, they lost their entire clientele.”
However, he stressed that the disease “trigger” could be anywhere along the food chain.
“What if one contaminated ingredient, say from one brand, is used in multiple products in many places? It’s all about going back to the trigger.”
Dubai and UAE officials from various departments are working on creating both a culture and system that can better isolate or track down suspected cases, he added.
