Frequently Asked Questions

Food poisoning is a common, yet distressing and sometimes life-threatening problem for millions of people in the U.S. and throughout the world. People infected with food-borne organisms may be symptom-free or may have symptoms ranging from mild intestinal discomfort to severe dehydration and bloody diarrhea. Many foodborne illnesses are acute, meaning they happen suddenly and last a short time, and many people recover on their own without treatment.

If the poisoning is caused by a chemical agent (e.g. ammonia) the symptoms can begin within minutes. An example of this is the Laraway Elementary School incident in Illinois – with over 150 children sickened from ammonia contaminated chicken tenders in the school lunch. Details can be seen here.

However, food poisoning is most commonly caused by organisms such as Norovirus or Salmonella. Onset from this type of food poisoning can range from as little as 1 hour (Staphylococcus aureus) to as long as 28 days (Hepatitis A).

A table explaining onset times and duration for organisms that frequently cause illness can found on the FDA website link found here.

The CDC recommends to see your doctor if you have:

• High fever (temperature over 101.5 F, measured orally)
• Blood in the stools
• Prolonged vomiting that prevents keeping liquids down (which can lead to dehydration)
• Signs of dehydration, including a decrease in urination, a dry mouth and throat, and feeling dizzy when standing up
• Diarrheal illness that lasts more than 3 days

Wouldn't I be able to tell the food is bad? It is possible to get food poisoning from any food or anywhere you eat food, even when safety standards are in place. You cannot always tell the food you are eating is bad.

To stop others from getting sick! Reporting foodborne illness helps to detect outbreaks, and enables better surveillance of establishments that have repeat problems. Read more

We aim to keep a safe environment for all of our users and to achieve that we have set the following rules for our comments section:

• Be courteous and kind.
• No Promotions or Spam
• No misinformation
• Please avoid judging peoples choices, what is obvious to you, may not be obvious to others.
• No politics

We monitor the reports, and forward alerts to health departments. We also monitor for outbreaks – where multiple reports have come in from the same place in the same time frame. We have an escalation process when this happens, and many news sources watch our data. We have been successful in helping detect outbreaks.

Please contact us here.

Yes we do – please visit our enterprise services site Dinesafe.org to learn more.

Yes we do – please visit our enterprise services site Dinesafe.org to learn more.

Iwaspoisoned.com is curated. Every single report gets both a human review and a technical back end review. These reviews are designed to eliminate malicious, inauthentic, or off topic reports. Misuse or malicious use of the site by users is also against our terms of use policy. Our commitment is to do everything we can to ensure that every report represents a real person who believes they got food poisoning.