Active microbial infection resulting from ingestion of a pathogen-containing food

• A. Food poisoning
• B. Food infection
• C. Food intoxication
• D. Foodborne illness

Answer: (B)

Active microbial infection happens when a person eats food that contains live pathogens which then survive, invade, and multiply in the body to cause illness. That direct growth of the organism in the host is what makes it a food infection. In this scenario, the disease symptoms come from the pathogen actively infecting and reproducing in the person, not from a toxin produced in the food beforehand.

This differs from food intoxication, where illness is caused by toxins produced by microbes present in the food before ingestion—the body’s symptoms come from the toxin itself, even if the organism isn’t actively growing in the person. The term food poisoning is often used loosely and can refer to either infection or toxin-mediated illness, but it isn’t as specific as “food infection.” Foodborne illness is the broad umbrella term for any illness from contaminated food, including infections and intoxications, without specifying the cause.