Recently increasing food poisoning has become a threat of both public health and social confidence. Only last week, 648 people who ate a doner in the Gulf district of Kocaeli applied to hospitals on suspicion of food poisoning. This event was recorded as one of the largest cases of collective poisoning in Türkiye. According to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, over 9,000 food poisoning cases were reported in 2024 in Türkiye. This figure points to an increase of 17 percent compared to the previous year. Especially due to increasing inflation and cost of living, many enterprises are trying to reduce their costs by offering them for sale with discounts that are approached or not stored under favorable conditions. This makes an obligation to make a choice especially for low -income citizens and “saturation of the abdomen”. So, when you are poisoned by the meal you eat, do you know your rights as a consumer and a business side?
Reform is a must
If an enterprise has exceeded an expiration date, preserved under wrong conditions or produced in contradiction with hygiene rules, this is considered a heavy defect. In such a case, the amount of compensation increases and businesses may face more severe legal and administrative sanctions. Lawyer Sevda Şahin İhsanoğlu, who made an assessment on the subject, stated that only compensation cases would not be enough to solve food safety problems and that the issue carries a deeper and structural dimension. İhsanoğlu, “If food production is not located, public health will be threatened. Türkiye needs to develop independent policies, support farmers and make reforms to strengthen domestic production in order to maintain agricultural production and food safety ” he said.
Material, non -pecuniary damage
Ihsanoglu expressed that administrative sanctions such as fines, license cancellation or stopping of activity by ministries are also applied by the ministries, “Consumers who have been damaged due to food poisoning, use their legal rights, can demand material and non -pecuniary damages.
What are the symptoms of poisoning?
Specialist Dietitian Elif Melek Avcı Dursun shared the points to be considered in food poisoning. Stating that bacteria such as Salmonella and Campylobacter pose a serious risk in raw or low -cooked animal products, Dursun showed the acceleration of bacterial proliferation with rapid production processes, inadequate hygiene conditions, cold chain deterioration and increasing temperatures in the summer months.
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