A head of lettuce sealed in plastic. A chicken tender from the hot bar at the local grocery. A bowl of cereal. An oyster served on a bed of ice at a fancy seafood bar.
But which of these foods can give you food poisoning?
Most people might guess the oyster, but the answer is that any of these foods — even the cooked and packaged ones — can carry foodborne illness.
Food contamination can lead to illnesses that are uncomfortable or painful. For the very young, elderly, or people with compromised health, food contamination can even be deadly.
What Is a Foodborne Illness?
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) describes foodborne illness as a common but preventable illness that comes from eating food contaminated with pathogens. A person can experience food poisoning from bacteria like salmonella. Or they can pick up the pathogen from viruses like the norovirus.
How Common is Food Poisoning?
Because most people recover on their own, cases of food poisoning often aren’t reported, and it’s difficult to have a firm estimate as to how many people experience it each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that around 48 million people experience food poisoning annually.
Read More: Can Healthy Foods Be Toxic?
Common Types of Food Poisoning
The norovirus is the most common type of food poisoning in the U.S. Salmonella, staphylococcus aureus (A.K.A. staph), Escherichia coli (E. coli), and campylobacter are also fairly common. Listeria and Hepatitis A tend to be less common in the U.S.
Although it’s possible to pick up a less common foodborne illness in the U.S., public health officials most often hear about the same culpable contaminants. These pathogens spread mostly through improper food handling and storage.
What Is Norovirus?
A person who has had Norovirus likely remembers it well. Symptoms begin to appear within one to two days, and projectile vomiting is typically the first indicator of the illness.
Norovirus is the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide, and it’s blamed for 58 percent of foodborne illnesses in the U.S. The virus spreads easily through food or water that has come into contact with a contaminated person. A person can also pick up the virus by touching a contaminated surface.
In addition to vomiting, symptoms of Norovirus include diarrhea, cramps, headaches, and muscle aches. Symptoms can start as early as 12 hours after exposure, and they usually ease within one to three days. However, a person might still be contagious for several more days.
What Is Staph?
A chicken wing at a grocery store hot bar might seem safe because it is fully cooked. But it could have come into contact with staph, a germ that many people carry naturally in their nose or on their hands.
Staph symptoms come on hard and fast — as soon as 30 minutes after consumption.