Iwaspoisoned.com is a public health platform that helps track food poisoning incidents worldwide. We partner with health departments and agencies globally to identify potential outbreaks and food safety issues. Our data has been used by the FDA, state, local and international health organizations to protect consumers. Learn more about the science behind our platform.
Reporting is completely free and your personal information remains private. We never publish your name, email, or phone number.
No. We are a food safety reporting platform, not a medical site. While we may share educational resources published by government health agencies like the CDC and FDA, this information is for reference purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult healthcare professionals for medical concerns.
According to the World Health Organization, 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 impacted by food-borne illness 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:
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
While individual reports are anecdotal, our platform's strength lies in pattern recognition across thousands of reports. All submissions undergo comprehensive moderation including automated screening, pattern analysis, and manual review. We partner with over 500 health departments globally who use our aggregated data for outbreak detection - a process that wouldn't be valuable if the data lacked reliability. Our methodology has been validated through successful identification of actual outbreaks later confirmed by health officials. The key is not relying on single reports, but analyzing patterns across multiple verified submissions. Learn more about our public health partnerships.
All reports go through our comprehensive moderation process that includes automated screening, pattern analysis, and manual review by our team. We use advanced algorithms to detect suspicious activity, remove duplicate reports, and screen for report authenticity before publication. Through rigorous verification and analysis, we actively filter out biased or unreliable submissions and focus on identifying genuine patterns across multiple independent reports. This rigorous approach and specialized focus on food safety is what sets us apart from regular social media and why health departments around the world partner with us for outbreak detection. Read more about our moderation process.
While individual cases can involve multiple factors, our platform identifies patterns by analyzing thousands of reports over time. When multiple independent reports consistently link similar symptoms to specific foods from particular locations or time periods, this creates a signal that health officials investigate further. We don't claim individual reports prove causation - instead, we provide early warning systems that help health departments identify potential issues for proper scientific investigation.
Every report undergoes both automated and human review specifically designed to detect and eliminate malicious, inauthentic, or revenge-motivated submissions. We use advanced algorithms to identify suspicious patterns, verify user authenticity, and flag potential bad actors. Misuse of our platform violates our terms of service and can result in account termination. Our commitment is ensuring every published report represents a genuine person who believes they experienced food poisoning, not someone with ulterior motives.
When multiple similar reports emerge in a pattern, we deploy enhanced verification techniques to rigorously assess these signals. This adaptive approach helps ensure genuine outbreak patterns are accurately identified and reported to health officials. 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 many outbreaks.See samples of outbreaks detected here.
Yes we do – please visit our enterprise services site Dinesafe.org to learn more about our advanced reporting, analytics, and industry solutions.
Search
