Incidence of Food Poisoning Outbreaks in Pahang, Malaysia, for Six-Year, from 2013 to 2018

Abstract

The Food Safety and Quality Division (FSQD) in Malaysia is the competent authority tasked with ensuring food safety throughout the food supply chain within the country. Despite implementing various regulations toward improving food hygiene standards in Malaysia, outbreaks of food poisoning cases continued to occur in Malaysia. This cross-sectional study was designed to explore the occurrence of food poisoning incidents in Malaysia, within the Pahang state, from 2013 to 2018 via both reported passive case detection (PCD) and active case detection (ACD) food poisoning incidents. Upon detecting all the food poisoning cases using both PCD and ACD, the people identified to have suffered from food poisoning underwent a structured interview for investigators to elicit all relevant information about the food poisoning incident. Results showed that in Pahang, the number of reported episodes fluctuated from 2013 until 2018, with an average of 21 food poisoning episodes occurring yearly, reaching a maximum in August and a minimum in May. Furthermore, Kuantan, being the state capital, had reported an exceptionally high total number of reported incidents of food poisoning with a total of 48 episodes over six years from 2013 to 2018, while Kuala Lipis had only one incident reported during the same period (which was reported in 2016). Finally, this study concluded that adequate measures must always be taken to minimise the occurrence of food poisoning, especially when preparing foods in large quantities.