By late afternoon, the fruit seller had already sprayed water over the watermelon slices three times to keep them looking fresh.
Nearby, glasses of sugarcane juice stood lined up in the heat. In another home, cut fruit waited on the dining table because the refrigerator was already full.
Summer changes the way food moves through everyday life in India. It changes how long things stay fresh, how quickly they spoil, and how carefully they need to be handled once temperatures rise.
And according to Dr Palaniappan Manickam, better known online as Dr Pal, understanding these small shifts can go a long way in preventing the wave of seasonal stomach infections that arrive every year with the heat.
“Food poisoning is not always about one bad meal,” he explains to The Better India. “In summer, heat changes how food behaves. Bacteria multiply faster, food spoils quicker, and contamination can happen at several points before the food even reaches your plate.”
This year, as temperatures climb across large parts of India earlier than usual, conversations around food safety have intensified again — especially after recent social media panic around allegedly “contaminated” watermelons sold in local markets.
But experts say the good news is that many summer food-related illnesses are preventable once people understand how contamination actually happens.
Why does summer change the risk
Dr Pal explains – Food poisoning occurs when a person consumes food or water contaminated with harmful microorganisms, toxins, or chemicals. “The most common culprits are bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Campylobacter, though viruses like norovirus and even parasites can also trigger illness.”
Summer creates ideal conditions for these organisms to thrive.
Higher temperatures accelerate bacterial growth, especially in foods left exposed for long periods. Items that appear perfectly normal at 10 am can become risky by late afternoon if not refrigerated properly.
According to Dr Pal, foods commonly linked to summer contamination include cut fruits, dairy products, cooked rice, seafood, meat, salads, chutneys, and street food that sits out in the heat.
What makes summer illnesses particularly difficult is that dehydration escalates quickly in high temperatures. Photograph: (The Times of India)
The contamination itself may begin much earlier than people realise. Unsafe water used during farming, poor hand hygiene, dirty chopping boards, cross-contamination between raw and cooked foods, repeated heat exposure during transport, and improper refrigeration all increase the risk.
In India’s summers, where power cuts, long delivery routes, and open-air food markets remain common realities, that chain becomes even more fragile.
The challenge is that contamination is not always visible. Food may smell normal, look fresh, and still carry enough microbial contamination to make someone ill hours later.
The simple precautions that matter most
The expert says prevention is often surprisingly basic.
-
Wash the outer surface of fruits before cutting them
-
Use clean knives and chopping boards
-
Refrigerate cut fruits promptly
-
Avoid eating food left exposed to heat for long periods
-
Be cautious with pre-cut fruits from unreliable sources
-
Maintain proper hand hygiene
-
Avoid foods with unusual smell, texture, or taste
In summer, temperature itself becomes part of food safety.
Melons and cut fruits are particularly vulnerable because their outer surfaces can carry microbes from soil, contaminated water, transport crates, or repeated human handling. Photograph: (M. Moorthy)
A watermelon slice left out on a counter for hours may not look alarming. Neither will rice be reheated repeatedly throughout the day. But in extreme heat, bacterial growth does not wait for visible spoilage.
Understanding this is often the first step towards avoiding illness altogether.
The symptoms people often ignore
Someone in an office says they have been “feeling off” since morning. Another person immediately nods. A third joins in with a story about stomach cramps from the night before.
Someone blames the roadside juice stall nearby. Someone else suspects the biryani from the weekend.
And every year around summer, gastroenterology clinics see a sharp rise in patients walking in with diarrhoea, nausea, stomach cramps, vomiting, or all four at once. Most people simply call it food poisoning, as though it is a quick explanation attached to an unpleasant week.
Most people dismiss the early signs as “something I ate”.
Sometimes they are right. But doctors say recurring seasonal symptoms deserve more attention than they usually receive.
In many cases, however, mild food poisoning improves with hydration and rest. Photograph: (Shutterstock)
The early signs of food poisoning commonly include nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhoea, bloating, fatigue, headache, fever, and dehydration. Depending on the organism involved, symptoms may begin within hours or appear much later.
What makes summer illnesses particularly difficult is that dehydration escalates quickly in high temperatures. A person already losing fluids through sweating can deteriorate faster once vomiting or diarrhoea begins.
Dr Pal says there are also several warning signs people should not ignore — blood in stool, persistent vomiting, high fever, severe abdominal pain, confusion, or signs of severe dehydration. Young children, elderly people, pregnant women, and immunocompromised individuals are especially vulnerable.
In many cases, however, mild food poisoning improves with hydration and rest. Oral rehydration solutions, electrolyte-rich fluids, and simple, easy-to-digest foods are usually recommended while avoiding the suspected contaminated food entirely.
Why watermelon suddenly became the villain
Few summer foods are as culturally tied to heat relief in India as watermelon. It appears everywhere — roadside carts, office cafeterias, train stations, apartment fruit vendors, wedding buffets.
But in recent weeks, videos and posts claiming “toxic” or “chemically injected” watermelons triggered anxiety online, with many consumers questioning whether the fruit itself had become unsafe.
Dr Pal says the panic misunderstands science.
“Watermelon is not inherently dangerous,” he explains. “Like many raw fruits, it can become a vehicle for contamination if hygiene and storage conditions are poor.”
The issue lies less with the fruit and more with what happens after harvest.
Melons and cut fruits are particularly vulnerable because their outer surfaces can carry microbes from soil, contaminated water, transport crates, or repeated human handling. Once cut open, those microbes can transfer to the flesh.
Watermelon also contains high water content, natural sugars, and a near-neutral pH — conditions that allow bacteria to multiply rapidly if slices are left unrefrigerated in extreme heat.
That risk increases sharply with pre-cut fruit sold at roadside stalls or buffet counters where refrigeration is inconsistent. The intact outer peel acts as a protective barrier. Once removed, the fruit becomes far more exposed.
In crowded Indian summers, where cut fruit may sit for hours under direct sunlight, contamination can happen faster than most people realise.
The invisible journey of contamination
What experts increasingly emphasise is that food poisoning is often systemic rather than isolated.
A contaminated knife was used repeatedly throughout the day. Melted ice was reused at a juice stall. Refrigerated food was briefly left out during transport. A delivery container sitting in traffic for two hours. Unwashed hands touching cut fruit.
Each step adds another opportunity for microbial growth.
And unlike dramatic outbreaks that make headlines, most cases remain invisible.
That is partly why so many people experience stomach infections around the same time, even without sharing the same meal.
Not every stomach infection is caused by a single bad meal. Sometimes, it is the season itself that exposes the weak points in how food moves, waits, travels, and survives the heat before it reaches us.
But experts say awareness itself is a powerful form of prevention. In a season when heat changes how quickly food turns unsafe, small precautions — refrigeration, hygiene, careful handling, and paying attention to how long food sits exposed — can make a significant difference.
