What's the difference between food poisoning and food spoilage?

Food poisoning is generally the result of when the food hasn't been cooked properly or has been contaminated with a substance (for example blood from raw chicken dropping on it) food spoilage is when the food has gone off (past it's sell by date). You can generally tell when spoilage has occurred as it will look or smell different (e.g fruit will go mouldy) but it can be hard to tell when a food has been contaminated as it may not look or smell different but you will know later on when you are throwing up and so have food poisoning!

Food spoilage refers to rotten food, which is unfit for consumption.  Eg : Moulding, Curdling, Foul smell emiting from food etc...

Food poisoning refers to the condition affecting a person's health due to consumption of spoilt or contaminated food.  Symptoms include, diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea, headaches, cramps in the stomach etc...

Food poisoning is not a rare condition involving arsenic and mainly found in books of fiction by Agatha Christie or needing a Sherlock Holmes to find the culprit.
Actually we are all at risk of getting food poisoning and our ignorance and negligence is the chief suspect.
Food spoilage is when there is a loss of quality or nutritional value of the food.
This is often linked to the food deteriorating in taste, smell, flavour or appearance.
Even though spoiled food may not cause food poisoning it is still illegal to sell it as that breaks Section2 of the Food Act1984 (Warning UK only).
This states, "It is prohibited to sell food for human consumption which is not of the nature, substance or quality." Clearly spoiled food is not of the quality expected.

Food poisoning and spoilage are two different things, which affect the final quality and safety of foods. Food deterioration can occur throughout the whole period starting from the point of cultivation, until the point of consumption. Some of the deteriorations will result in low quality end product with unacceptable appearance, texture, taste and edibility where the others affect the chemical composition of food by altering the original. Both the economy and human health will be negatively affected in the case of neglecting the needed precautionary actions to prevent those deteriorations.

 

Both processes are related to food and microbial activity on them. Spoiled food items will affect the quality of food, while the poisoned food affects the safety of food. Finally, both negatively affect human health and reduce the economic profit to the industry.