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Food poisoning

Food poisoning is rarely serious and usually gets better within a week. You can normally treat yourself or your child at home.

Symptoms of food poisoning

Symptoms of food poisoning include:

  • feeling sick or being sick
  • diarrhoea
  • tummy pain
  • a high temperature
  • feeling generally unwell

The symptoms usually start within a few hours or a few days of eating food that caused the infection.

Sometimes symptoms do not start for a few weeks.

How to treat food poisoning yourself

If you or your child have food poisoning, you can usually treat it at home.

The symptoms usually get better within a week.

A pharmacist can help with food poisoning

How you get food poisoning

Food poisoning is caused by eating something that has been contaminated with germs.

This can happen if food is:

  • not cooked or reheated thoroughly
  • not stored correctly – for example, it's not been frozen or chilled
  • left out for too long
  • handled by someone who's ill or has not washed their hands
  • eaten after its "use by" date

Any type of food can cause food poisoning.

Infections that cause food poisoning

Food poisoning is usually caused by:

  • campylobacter bacteria – the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK
  • salmonella bacteria
  • E. coli bacteria
  • norovirus (vomiting bug)

Find out more about food hygiene and avoiding food poisoning from the Food Standards Agency website.

Page last reviewed: 19 December 2024
Next review due: 19 December 2027