Sitotoxism is food poisoning caused by a sitotoxin, the illness that follows eating food contaminated with toxins produced by moulds or bacteria. Unlike infections, where live microbes invade the body, sitotoxism is intoxication: the poison is already in the food, so symptoms can strike within hours and cooking offers no protection. Examples range from aflatoxin poisoning, which damages the liver, through staphylococcal food poisoning from toxins in mishandled food, to the historic horrors of ergotism. Outbreaks follow failures in storage, handling, or processing that let toxin-producers thrive. The term is little used in modern food safety, which speaks of mycotoxins and bacterial toxins, but it names a real and ancient category of foodborne harm.