With the modern pace of life, a lot is done on the go. This also applies to nutrition. The cafes and fast food kiosks that appeared quickly became popular. Shawarma is considered one of the quick snacks. Easy to purchase at any street cafe. Snacking on fast food causes health problems: from inflammation of the gastric mucosa to infection of the nervous system (botulism). It tops the food poisoning list.
Shawarma is a dish of oriental cuisine, more precisely, Asian. It is a flatbread made from thin dough. Grilled meat is wrapped inside. Sauces and vegetables are added. It is obvious that the dish has gone far from dietary nutrition. Thanks to its taste and composition, this gastronomic cocktail has become popular. The low price also adds to its popularity.
A lot of recipes have been created for making shawarma. By changing the ingredients, you can end up with a tasty, healthy dish. There are healthy cooking options, replacing grilled meat with chicken breast, seasoning with low-fat sauce, adding herbs, fresh vegetables, and spices to taste. Homemade shawarma is much tastier and healthier than food from mass catering. Doctors are categorically against such dinners. Often a dish is prepared from products that are not the freshest, in conditions that do not meet sanitary and hygienic requirements. This provokes poisoning.
Causes of shawarma poisoning
Shawarma is a meat product in pita bread with vegetables and spices. To attract the buyer, all the necessary ingredients are stored openly on the table in front of the salesman-cook. Such storage of food products leads to an increased risk of various bacterial microorganisms entering them, which quickly begin to multiply and release toxins. The latter, when ingested, cause symptoms of food poisoning. Improper storage of meat is a risk factor for shawarma poisoning.
An important reason for shawarma poisoning is neglect of the hygiene of the buyer himself. Eating on the street with dirty hands, buying shawarma at “suspicious” points, eating food that is not freshly prepared - all this can lead to the development of poisoning.
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Shawarma is a dish that came from oriental cuisine, although it has undergone a number of changes.
Thin, crispy, crispy pita bread, meat soaked in seasonings with a golden crust, fresh or pickled vegetables - it would seem that individually all these products cannot cause harm to health.
But a delicious gastronomic cocktail is a very harmful product, fatty, and also carries the danger of intoxication of the body.
Shawarma can be poisoned due to the following reasons:
- Poor quality of products. A common cause of intoxication is the use of expired products or poor-quality heat treatment of meat. A person cannot determine how fresh the meat is in a product due to the use of a large number of seasonings and sauces. There are frequent cases of using expired mayonnaise for preparing sauces when cooking vegetables with rotten rot.
- Violation of sanitary standards for storing food products. Meat cannot sit for long, and if all of it has not been sold by the evening, it remains for the next day.
- Unsanitary conditions. The kiosks where shawarma is sold do not have proper ventilation, they are rarely cleaned, and most of the workers do not have a health certificate and cook without using gloves.
- Neglect of hygiene rules. Buyers themselves are often to blame for being poisoned by shawarma - they take food with dirty hands, eat in places where there are no appropriate conditions for eating.
- The presence of a pathogenic intestinal infection - Escherichia coli, salmonella.
- Parasites – if food is prepared without gloves or if the person eating shawarma does not perform proper hand hygiene first, there is a high risk of parasites entering the body.
- Viral infection - rotavirus, norovirus, entry into the body is associated with poor hygiene in the preparation and consumption of food.
- Toxic poisoning - occurs if a person who prepares food has a purulent sore throat and does not use protective equipment, which is why microbes get on food in large quantities.
- Excessive amount of fat. Shawarma meat is prepared with the addition of a large amount of vegetable oils, which are also present in sauces. The result is a very fatty dish, which is harmful to any person, especially the body weakened by diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Frequent consumption of the product will lead to intoxication of the body due to the accumulation of large amounts of harmful fats in it.
Symptoms of poisoning
Poisoning with shawarma occurs like a classic food poisoning. Within one or several hours after consuming the product, a person notices the appearance of nausea and pain in the upper abdomen (see Abdominal pain due to poisoning). As a rule, repeated vomiting appears almost immediately, bringing relief. If the amount of toxins in the product was large and they entered the intestines, then the poisoned person develops rumbling, bloating, and soon diarrhea begins - the stool is liquid, copious, and may be streaked with mucus.
Most patients develop intoxication syndrome: body temperature rises, headache, weakness, and general malaise appear. Similar symptoms are also associated with dehydration, which develops against the background of excessive vomiting and diarrhea.
Important! As a rule, symptoms go away on their own within one to two days after toxins are removed from the body. However, despite the ease of poisoning, it is always necessary to seek medical help due to the risk of dehydration and severe complications.
Treatment of shawarma poisoning
What to do if you are poisoned by shawarma? Providing assistance to a patient or self-help is based on the following actions:
- The person is given a large volume of warm, slightly salted water to drink. You can add a few drops of potassium permanganate solution. After this, pressing on the root of the tongue induces vomiting. The procedure is repeated until the lavage water from the stomach becomes clear. If a small child has been poisoned or the person is unconscious, then gastric lavage is contraindicated.
- To bind toxins and bacteria in the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract, enterosorbents are used - Activated carbon, Smecta, Lactulose, Enterosgel. These drugs do not have side effects, but they allow you to cope with toxins and prevent their effects on the intestines and the body as a whole.
- If there is a significant rise in temperature or severe headache, painkillers from the group of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Ketorol, Nimesulide, Ibuprofen) are used.
- The greatest health threat from food poisoning is dehydration. To combat it, the patient is given clean, ordinary water to drink or special medications (Regidron) are used.
Warning! Antiemetic or antidiarrheal medications should not be used, as this will lead to the accumulation of toxin in the body and aggravate the course of poisoning.
Where to complain if you are poisoned by shawarma
Where to complain if poisoning does occur? To do this, you need to contact the local department of Rospotrebnadzor. The complaint must contain the first and last name of the victim, his exact address and telephone number. The appeal must describe in detail the circumstances of the incident. Going to the hospital for an infectious pathology or poisoning caused by eating shawarma will help increase the chances of getting the case resolved properly.
You can also complain to the Consumer Protection Department. This authority is also obliged to respond to such an appeal. However, it is important to consider that Rospotrebnadzor has a large amount of powers.
This organization has the right to inspect the specified point and perform laboratory tests. If violations are detected, the specialists of this institution will issue a fine to the kiosk owner or submit documents to the court to suspend its work.
Eating low-quality shawarma leads to negative health consequences. When the first signs of poisoning appear, it is necessary to provide assistance to the victim, and then take him to the hospital. The doctor will determine the causes of the illness and select appropriate therapy.
Benefits and harms
The concept of shawarma comes from Asian cuisine. Meat fried on a vertical grill, vegetables and a special sauce are wrapped in thin pita bread. The products themselves are not harmful to the body, but in combination with fatty sauce they can hardly be considered dietary food.
There are many recipes for preparing an oriental dish, and if it contains fresh vegetables, chicken breast and low-fat shawarma sauce, it will not be harmful to the stomach. However, doctors do not recommend such a lunch - as practice shows, the gastronomic cocktail contains products that are not the freshest, and fast food sales points do not meet sanitary and epidemiological requirements.
The owners of the establishment face imprisonment for up to 2 years
Investigators immediately went to the place where the shawarma was traded. The kiosk is currently not operational. Specialists inspected the bistro, seized food products for analysis, and interrogated the shawarma shop workers and witnesses. Based on the results of the investigation, the actions of those responsible for compliance with sanitary and epidemiological rules when selling food will be given a legal assessment.
The Investigation Department of the Oktyabrsky District of Ufa opened a criminal case under the article “production, storage, transportation or sale of goods and products that do not meet the requirements for the safety of life and health of consumers” (Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
The regional Ministry of Emergency Situations is monitoring the situation. The owners of the establishment were taken to the regional department of the Investigative Committee. They face a fine of up to 300 thousand rubles and imprisonment of up to 2 years.
As a source of Realnoe Vremya reported, the Sipailov shawarma shop belongs to a 30-year-old citizen of Tajikistan, Imomiddin Nasrulloev, who registered an individual entrepreneur in September last year in Ufa. The entrepreneur's activities include operating restaurants and providing food delivery services; trade in food products, fruits, vegetables, meat, bread, drinks.
Law enforcement officers detained a compatriot of the owner of the outlet, born in 1992, who worked in the bistro. According to the information available to our online newspaper, the young man has a residence permit in Russia. He also has a work permit in the Russian Federation.
Specialists inspected the bistro, seized food products for analysis, and are interrogating the shawarma shop workers and witnesses. Photo apn-nn.com
Rospotrebnadzor of Bashkortostan began its investigation into the mass poisoning of people. As the press secretary of the department, Anastasia Kuchimova, explained to Realnoe Vremya, specialists went out as part of an epidemiological investigation, took samples of raw materials and finished products, and sent them to the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology (a subordinate institution of Rospotrebnadzor). Epidemiologists and doctors are examining employees of this point for the presence of viruses.
— Let us note that the case in Sipailovo is not the first poisoning in Ufa this year. In winter, three children with nausea and vomiting were taken to an infectious diseases hospital. Teenagers who came to the Bashkir capital for the Biology and Physics Olympiad lived in the Amaks-Tourist Hotel,” Kuchimova said.
The results of analyzes of samples in the catering department will help doctors make an accurate diagnosis of the victims.
Causes of poisoning
Shawarma poisoning can occur in both adults and children.
- Poor quality ingredients. Manufacturers save on products and buy cheap, low-quality raw materials. Most often, the cause of poisoning is insufficient heat treatment of meat, expired mayonnaise, rotten vegetables, moldy pita bread.
- Unsanitary conditions at fast food outlets. Shawarma poisoning most often occurs due to dirty tables on which the dish is prepared, unwashed hands of the cook, lack of ventilation, and running rodents.
- Consumers themselves are often to blame for food poisoning. Unwashed hands, eating in inappropriate conditions, storing the finished product without refrigeration for a long time are the main causes of botulism.
- The presence of various diseases in the cook. Sore throat, viral infections, parasites - all these diseases are easily transmitted to shawarma buyers.
- The increased fat content in the finished product leads to the accumulation of harmful substances in the body, which can also cause intoxication.
Whatever your desire to eat shawarma, you need to carefully look at the conditions under which it was prepared, whether the cook wore gloves, and what the shawarma smells like. If something arouses suspicion, it would be safer for your health to refuse the purchase.
Prevention
Before purchasing shawarma, look at what is happening in the kitchen, how the product is prepared, and whether the basic conditions are met. Pay attention to everything, including the cook’s hands. After just watching how the dish is prepared, you can immediately decide whether it’s worth purchasing shawarma here. It is better to temporarily suffer from unsatisfied hunger while looking for a decent cafe than from food poisoning.
The buyer should remember and follow simple hygiene requirements: wash hands thoroughly with soap or disinfectant gel. Take your food slowly, even fast food. Find a quiet place. Eating on the go is unhealthy.
Signs and symptoms
Symptoms of shawarma poisoning can be detected literally a couple of hours after drinking a gastronomic cocktail. The symptoms of shawarma intoxication are no different from the symptoms of poisoning with other food products.
- Pain syndrome in the abdominal area;
- Nausea;
- Vomiting;
- Increased salivation;
- Lethargy, lack of appetite;
- Diarrhea;
- Bloating, belching; (belching after poisoning)
- Increased body temperature;
- Headache.
Seeking medical help
A person poisoned from shawarma should go to the hospital. Especially if there are signs:
- Prolonged, incessant diarrhea;
- Lethargy, apathy, fatigue;
- Coordination changes;
- Presence of blood in vomit;
- Dry mucous membranes;
- Body temperature is more than 38 degrees;
- Urinary retention.
Don't ignore the signs. Try to seek professional help. Delaying treatment will only aggravate the situation, the patient’s condition will worsen. It is better to act earlier so that you do not have to be hospitalized.
First aid and treatment
What to do if poisoning with low-quality shawarma does occur? First of all, the patient needs to quickly remove all toxins from the body before they affect other organs.
If there is no vomiting, but the person suffers from symptoms of food poisoning, it is necessary to forcefully empty the stomach.
Methods of forced stomach cleansing:
- Press on the root of the tongue with two fingers;
- Drink a weakly concentrated solution of potassium permanganate;
- Dilute a small amount of soda in a glass of warm boiled water and drink the resulting solution.
First aid for poisoning:
- Gastric lavage. If the patient experiences frequent vomiting, you should not take drugs that stop the reflex. The body must cleanse itself of harmful substances on its own. After each bout of vomiting, you should drink some water to avoid dehydration.
- Taking any sorbent that will speed up recovery. Activated carbon, Smecta, Enterosgel and other drugs absorb harmful substances and remove them from the body.
- You can eliminate elevated body temperature with the help of antipyretics.
- If a patient is poisoned by shawarma, bed rest is recommended.
After emergency care, the patient requires complex therapy. Before prescribing medications, the patient's blood, stool and vomit samples are taken.
Treatment of intoxication:
- Cleansing the digestive organs of toxins using a probe.
- Taking antibacterial drugs if the cause of poisoning is bacteria in the shawarma.
- Restorative therapy involves taking a course of probiotics that can restore intestinal microflora.
Particular attention should be paid to the period of recovery of the body after poisoning. Diet plays a major role in rehabilitation.
Diet after intoxication:
- Absence of fatty, fried and salty foods in the daily diet.
- Drinking large amounts of liquid. It is better to give preference to tea, or herbal tea or dried fruit compote.
- Eating low-fat fermented milk products daily.
- It is better to cook first courses from lean meats: chicken, turkey and veal.
Providing first prehospital aid
Even mild forms of intoxication require competent first aid in order to normalize a person’s condition and remove toxic substances from the liver. If you experience attacks of nausea, but there is no vomiting, or it is rare, artificial gastric lavage is performed. It is necessary to press the root of the tongue with two fingers, drink a saline solution or use a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
Between gags, it is recommended to drink plenty of water at room temperature. It is necessary to lavage the stomach until the water comes out clean, without any admixture of vomit.
In case of profuse vomiting, taking medications to relieve this symptom is strictly prohibited.
Toxic substances are released with vomit, and the faster the digestive system is cleansed, the sooner the condition of the injured person will improve.
When the stomach has been cleansed, drugs - sorbents - are taken. The danger of food poisoning, which involves excessive vomiting, is the high risk of dehydration. To avoid this complication, you need to take a saline or glucose solution:
| Saline | Soda | Potassium chloride solution | Glucose |
| 1 l. water, 3.5 gr. salt | 1 l. water, 2.5 g soda | 1 l. water per 1.5 g. potassium chloride | 1 l. water for 20 gr. glucose |
A glucose solution can be prepared at home - add 18 grams of sugar to 1 liter of water.
During the recovery period after intoxication, it is strictly forbidden to drink alcohol and drinks that contain caffeine. These liquids are irritating to the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract, inhibit the process of removing toxins, and lead to dehydration.
A therapeutic diet is prescribed, excluding heavy, fatty foods, pickles and marinades, and seasonings. Drinks allowed are water, weak tea, herbal infusions with soothing herbs (chamomile, St. John's wort, mint, lemon balm).
To quickly improve digestion and normalize the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, it is recommended to take probiotics - Bionorm, Lactulose, fermented milk products. Regimen for taking the drug Bionorm:
| 3-6 years | 6-12 years | From 12 and older |
| 1 tablet, 3 times a day | 2 tablets, 3 times a day | 3 tablets, three times a day |
The duration of the course of treatment is 2 weeks.
Anna:
There were often problems with the intestines, any food led to poisoning. I tried a lot of things, but there was no result.
I decided to try the teas. The monastery collection of Father George began to help me well.
To avoid shawarma poisoning, precautions must be taken.
Shawarma poisoning - prevention:
- Before buying shawarma, you need to look at the conditions where it is prepared. If the cook is not wearing gloves and the room does not inspire confidence, it is better to refuse food.
- Before eating, be sure to wash your hands or use disinfectant gel.
- It is advisable to buy a gastronomic cocktail at trusted retail outlets.
Shawarma replaces lunch for many people, and it has excellent taste. Unfortunately, a quick snack can result in food poisoning. You can avoid intoxication by following simple precautions when purchasing a tasty product. Also, shawarma can be prepared at home using proven and high-quality products.
What is the dish made from?
Points selling shawarma can be found in almost every city. This dish is quite inexpensive, and at the same time includes a large number of hearty ingredients. Includes:
- minced meat;
- thin pita bread;
- vegetables;
- sauce.
The basis of the dish (sometimes also called “shawarma”) is meat. It is fried on a special vertical grill. Large pieces rotate around an axis near the heating elements. When the cook believes that the outermost layer is already baked, the meat is cut off.
Most often, chicken is used to prepare shawarma, less often - beef, pork, lamb and turkey. A standard set of vegetables includes fresh onions, white cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes. For variety, french fries, Korean carrots or mushrooms are added, and the filling can be placed not only in pita bread - pita bread is also used.
It is quite difficult to say whether shawarma is harmful. If fresh and high-quality products are used, and the cook complies with all hygiene standards and rules, the dish turns out tasty and satisfying. There is no harm from it, but, of course, it does not apply to dietary products. In addition, the calorie content of the sauces is quite high, and shawarma is not suitable for those who want to lose weight.
But violation of the rules of hygiene and sanitation when preparing a dish entails shawarma poisoning.
Answer
Good afternoon, yes, this is shawarma poisoning, but if you have not consumed other suspicious foods in the last 24 hours. It occurs like ordinary food poisoning or food toxic infection. Within a short time (up to several hours) after consuming a low-quality (stale) product, pain in the abdomen and nausea appear. This will be followed by vomiting, which will bring relief for a short period of time. If toxins have already entered the intestines, bloating and loose, profuse stools (possibly mixed with mucus) will appear. Further, intoxication syndrome is possible - an increase in temperature to 38 or 39 degrees (depending on the severity of the poisoning), weakness and headache. If you start treatment on time and remove toxins from the body, all symptoms will disappear within a few days.
Treatment for shawarma poisoning:
- Gastric lavage is the first thing to do in order to get rid of the remnants of toxic undigested food. To do this, give warm water or a solution of potassium permanganate to drink, and then induce vomiting by pressing on the root of the tongue. The procedure is carried out until the vomit is completely cleared of impurities. Washing is prohibited for children and unconscious victims.
- Take sorbents - medications that help cope with poisoning. They act in the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract (bind and remove toxins, and also prevent their negative effects on the body). For food poisoning, it is better to use sorbents such as Smecta, Enterosgel, Lactulose and Activated Carbon. The dosage of the drugs is indicated in the instructions for them.
- If body temperature increases to 38 degrees, it must be reduced with antipyretic drugs (Paracetomol, Ibuprofen).
- For headaches, you can take non-steroidal painkillers (Nimesulide, Ketorol).
- Poisoning with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea severely dehydrates the body, so it is recommended to drink large amounts of fluid (up to 3 liters per day). You can also use a water-salt solution (1 tsp of salt per 1 liter of warm water). It will help restore the balance of water and minerals in the body and quickly recover from poisoning. You can replace the saline solution with the medications Regidron and Oralit.
- After the active phase of vomiting and diarrhea has stopped, start taking medications that restore intestinal microflora - Linex, Hilak Forte.
- In case of food poisoning, it is strictly forbidden to use drugs against vomiting and diarrhea. This will lead to an even greater accumulation of toxins in the body and complicate poisoning.
- Stick to bed rest and try not to eat on the first day of poisoning. Next, stick to a diet (liquid potatoes, oatmeal with water without adding oil) until the condition stabilizes.
- In case of food poisoning, the body recovers within 2-3 days.
- If the active phase of poisoning (vomiting, diarrhea and fever) does not go away within the first 24 hours, you should consult a doctor.
Causes of shawarma poisoning:
- low-quality products - stale or not fully heat-treated meat, vegetables containing nitrates or already rotten;
- improper storage of products in violation of the temperature regime;
- unsanitary conditions for preparing shawarma, as well as the lack of a health certificate and a medical examination for the cook.
Consequences
Consequences of shawarma poisoning:
- Violation of the water-salt balance of the body, dehydration is extremely dangerous. First of all, in case of poisoning, it is necessary to eliminate the loss of water from the body.
- Transition of existing gastrointestinal diseases into an acute form.
- If low-quality, contaminated meat or vegetables were used in the preparation of shawarma, death is possible.
Shawarma poisoning, as can be seen from the above list of consequences, is a dangerous condition. It is necessary to follow the basic rules for choosing a product.
