Food poison how fast

Food poisoning. Check if you have food poisoning Symptoms of food poisoning include: feeling sick nausea diarrhoea being sick vomiting stomach cramps a high temperature of 38C or above feeling generally unwell — such as feeling tired or having aches and chills The symptoms usually start within a few days of eating the food that caused the infection.

Sometimes they start after a few hours or not for a few weeks. How to treat food poisoning yourself You can usually treat yourself or your child at home. The symptoms usually pass within a week.

Information: Read about how to treat diarrhoea and vomiting. This is to avoid contaminating ready-to-eat foods with harmful bacteria. This bacteria can be present in raw food before you cook it. Keep raw meat away from ready-to-eat foods, such as salad, fruit and bread. This is because these foods will not be cooked before you eat them.

Any bacteria that get onto the foods from the raw meat will not be killed. Always cover raw meat and store it on the bottom shelf of the fridge. This is so it cannot touch or drip onto other foods. Cook poultry, pork, burgers, sausages and kebabs until steaming hot. There should be no pink meat inside. Do not wash raw meat including chicken and turkey before cooking. This can spread bacteria around your kitchen. Freezing raw chicken reduces the levels of campylobacter bacteria.

But it does not eliminate them completely. The safest way to kill all traces of campylobacter is by cooking chicken thoroughly. Keep your fridge temperature below 5 degrees Celsius. Use a fridge thermometer to check it.

This prevents harmful germs from growing and multiplying. Avoid overfilling your fridge. If it's too full, air can't circulate properly. This can affect the temperature. If you have cooked food that you're not going to eat straight away, cool it as soon as possible. Do this within 90 minutes. Store it in the fridge or freezer. Use any leftovers from the fridge within 2 days. Do not eat food that's past its use-by date, even if it looks and smells okay.

Some of the main sources of contamination are described below. In the UK, campylobacter bacteria are the most common cause of food poisoning. The bacteria are usually found on raw or undercooked meat particularly poultry , unpasteurised milk and untreated water.

The incubation period the time between eating contaminated food and the start of symptoms for food poisoning caused by campylobacter is usually between two and five days. The symptoms usually last less than a week. Salmonella bacteria are often found in raw or undercooked meat, raw eggs, milk, and other dairy products. The incubation period is usually between 12 and 72 hours.

The symptoms usually last around four to seven days. All of these foods should be eaten by their "use-by" dates. This is particularly important for pregnant women, because a listeria infection known as listeriosis in pregnancy can cause pregnancy and birth complications, and can result in miscarriage.

The incubation period can vary considerably, from a few days to several weeks. The symptoms will usually pass within three days. Escherichia coli, often known as E. Most strains are harmless but some can cause serious illness. Most cases of E. The incubation period for food poisoning caused by E. The symptoms usually last for a few days or weeks. Symptoms typically develop within seven days of eating contaminated food and last for up to a week. An infection caused by Shigella bacteria is known as bacillary dysentery or shigellosis.

See the topic on dysentery for more information about it. The virus that most commonly causes diarrhoea and vomiting is the norovirus.

It's easily spread from person to person, through contaminated food or water. Raw shellfish, particularly oysters, can also be a source of infection. The incubation period typically lasts hours and the symptoms usually pass in a couple of days. In young children, the rotavirus is a common cause of infection from contaminated food. The symptoms usually develop within a week and pass in around five to seven days. In the UK, food poisoning caused by parasites is rare.

It's much more common in the developing world. The symptoms of food poisoning caused by a parasite usually develop within 10 days of eating contaminated food, although sometimes it may be weeks before you feel unwell. If left untreated, the symptoms can last a long time — sometimes several weeks or even a few months. Food poisoning can usually be treated at home without seeking medical advice.

Most people will feel better within a few days. It's important to avoid dehydration by drinking plenty of water, even if you can only sip it, as you need to replace any fluids lost through vomiting and diarrhoea. If you have food poisoning, you shouldn't prepare food for other people and you should try to keep contact with vulnerable people, such as the elderly or very young, to a minimum. Oral rehydration solutions ORS are recommended for people vulnerable to the effects of dehydration, such as the elderly and those with a pre-existing health condition.

ORSs are available in sachets from pharmacies. You dissolve them in water to drink and they help replace salt, glucose and other important minerals your body loses through dehydration. If you have a kidney condition, some types of oral rehydration salts may not be suitable for you.

Ask your pharmacist or GP for further advice about this. If your symptoms are severe or persistent, or you are more vulnerable to serious infection for example, because you are elderly or have an underlying health condition , you may need further treatment.

Tests may be carried out on a stool sample to find out what it causing your symptoms and antibiotics may be prescribed if the results show you have a bacterial infection.

Medication to stop you vomiting anti-emetics may also be prescribed if your vomiting is particularly severe.