Visiting a restaurant should be enjoyable. The atmosphere can be great, the waiting staff efficient and you assume the chef works safely and the meal will be a culinary treat. We trust that the chef knows what he's doing and will not risk poisoning us. Unfortunately, that's not always so.
It's all too easy to start cooking for a living, but with minimal training. For instance, a couple who like eating out may decide to open their own place, with one working in the kitchen and the other looking after the diners. What could be more fun? They've always enjoyed cooking at home; so it'll be easy. But cooking at home is very different from cooking in a restaurant. Will you be busy? How much food do you buy? What do you do with the unused food? That's a danger. A chef at a restaurant that has a slow trade may have bought too much food and can't afford to throw it away, so uses it after it’s safe to eat. You can also go one step back in the food chain to the supplier. With the same reasoning, is he supplying fresh food, or has it been stored for too long? The unsuspecting diner will be the one to find the answer, when he's sick.
A single bacterium, and they don't come singly, will divide every twenty minutes, so that left in the right conditions to grow for eight hours, will become one of 16,000,000, but you won't see them. So, if a chef undercooks some meat or poultry, for instance, and leaves it on the kitchen table overnight to cool instead of putting it in the fridge, there could be a problem. If not re-heated properly, there will definitely be a problem. Bacteria are found naturally in many foods, and are easily cross-contaminated to another food, but most will be killed with correct cooking at a high temperature, and when kept cool will lie dormant. It's when food is left at room temperature that the bacteria grow and, if eaten, will result in food poisoning.
It's estimated that up to 30% of the population in the West suffer from food-related diseases every year. In the United States, there are about 76 million cases of food poisoning annually, resulting in 5,000 deaths. Because the individual cases are spread over a wide geographical area, the severity is not appreciated and prevention is not a co-ordinated priority. People will continue to eat unsafe food and die because of it.
I'll admit that I prefer to visit busy restaurants with a good reputation; if dining in an unknown establishment, I'm more careful what I order. Like poker, though, it's a calculated gamble and I must have played against the odds yesterday because I'm suffering right now after eating prawns in a very busy place. However, I'm willing to accept the risk and I'll continue to enjoy eating out, but not for a few days!