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Food poisoning is an illness which occurs after eating or drinking anything infected by harmful bacteria. Unfortunately you can't tell from eating or drinking whether food or drink is contaminated with food poisoning bacteria.

The symptoms suffered will depend on the type of bacteria ingested. The most common symptoms include diarrhoea, sickness, nausea, stomach cramps and fever. The length of illness will depend on the type of food poisoning illness.

When people suffer from sickness and diarrhoea they often suspect they have food poisoning.  However 48 hour bugs are very common and also cause vomiting, and occasionally diarrhoea. These are usually caused by viruses in the environment and not food.

The only way to be certain that you have food poisoning is to visit your doctor and arrange for a stool sample to be analysed.

Very often people suspect that the last meal they ate is the cause of their illness.  However, food poisoning can take quite a long time to make you ill, and in some cases it may be up to 10 days before you start to feel ill.  The last meal you ate may not be the cause of your symptoms.

The main causes of food poisoning are:

• preparing food too far in advance
• not cooking food properly
• not defrosting food correctly
• storing food incorrectly so that bacteria can grow
• cross contamination of foods after cooking
• infection from people handling foods due to poor hygiene

If you believe that you have food poisoning you should take the following steps:

• visit your GP and request for a stool sample to be analysed – this is the only way food poisoning can be confirmed
• ensure you practice good personal hygiene
• wash your hands before handling food and after visiting the toilet
• drink plenty of fluids
• if you work as a foodhandler, or with the young, sick or elderly, you must inform your employer and stay away from work
• inform us if you believe your illness has been caused by a food premises in South Oxfordshire and we will investigate your complaint.

Contact us on 01491 823203 or e-mail environmental services@southoxon.gov.uk

Find out more on how to avoid getting food poisoning by downloading the fact sheet from the menu on the right.