for illness to occur a person usually need to consume a large number of organisms of salmonella . this means that in most cases the organisms
must grow on the food to reach high enough number to cause illness.
this usually occurs as a result of prolonged storage of the food at temperatures supporting the growth of the organisms ( for instance storage at room temperatures of 20c on the uk but potentially much higher in the southem hemisphere ) salmonella in controlled by heating foods to a minimum of 70c for 2 minutes (which should kill the bacteria ) and by storage of foods below 5c ( which slows the growth rate of the organism). there are minimum requirements and individual company guidelines can be more stringent .
when heating foods it is important that all parts of the food satisfy this temperature-time requirements . the illness usually manifests itself 12 to 36 hours after consumption of the infected food-thus in most cases illness will not be apparent until some time after the passenger leaves the aircraft. flight foods that have been implicated include cold salads horsd oeuvres and sweet desserts . other foods with which the organism has been linked include eggs (and products containing raw eggs ) and poultry but also chocolate orange juice and diced tomato . there has been widespread advice to use pasteurised eggs in dishes that do not receive heat treatment
(such as mousses and mayonnaise) and that if shell eggs are to be used in
cooked dishes they should have sanitised shells