FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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What is Iwaspoisoned.com?
A crowdsourcing /social platform designed to allow the reporting of potential food safety incidents in real-time by consumers.
What is food poisoning?
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.
How quickly does food poisoning start after eating contaminated food?
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.
What do I do if have food poisoning?
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
I thought restaurants had to meet certain food safety standards—how is it that I could have gotten sick from something I ate? 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.
Why should I report my illness?
To stop others from getting sick! Reporting food borne illness helps to detect outbreaks, and enables better surveillance of establishments that have repeat problems.
How does Iwaspoisoned.com use my report to help fight foodborne illness?
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.
How do i contact Iwaspoisoned.com?
Please contact us here
I am in the food industry - do you offer services to industry ?
Yes we do – please visit our enterprise services site Dinesafe.org to learn more.
I am an investment firm or investor - do you offer more advanced reporting and analytics ?
Yes we do – please visit our enterprise services site Dinesafe.org to learn more
How do you ensure against erroneous reports provided by disgruntled employees, or customers that have an unrelated dispute with a restaurant.
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.
