How Bacteria Multiply

How Bacteria Multiply

Food Poisoning is generally caused by large numbers of pathogenic bacteria being on food. They can be on the food naturally, or can get moved onto the food by people’s hands or from dirty work surfaces.

Bacteria multiply rapidly given the right conditions. They actually split themselves into two, this is called Binary Fission (Binary means two and Fission means splitting) we only need one bacteria to start the process.

What do they need?

All bacteria need 4 things to multiply:

1. Moisture, Bacteria need moist, or wet conditions, they will not multiply in dry conditions.

2. Time, All bacteria need time to multiply. In the right conditions one bacteria, on average, will split itself into two every 10-20 minutes.

3. Food, Bacteria like high protein foods, such as fish, meat, eggs and dairy products in order to multiply.

4. Warmth, Bacteria will multiply fastest in Warm Conditions (Between 5°C and 63°C) this is known as the Danger Zone. The ideal temperature for bacteria to multiply is 37°C (body temperature) so if we leave high protein foods, such as fish and chicken, in warm conditions for long enough we will get large numbers. If we start with one bacteria, this becomes 2 within 10 to 20 minutes, these two will split and we will then have four. These then split, and so on. If we leave our fish out in warm conditions we could have 5 million bacteria within five hours!