Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : Bill Marler : Marler Clark

I have some of the symptoms described. Do I have a foodborne illness?

Possibly. For example, scientists estimate that 35% of diarrheal illness is caused by a foodborne pathogen. Diarrhea that is caused by food poisoning usually lasts one week or less. Symptoms that appear suddenly are a sign of foodborne illness, although the last food consumed is not necessarily the cause of illness. Different microbes have different incubation periods. The incubation period refers to the time between ingestion and onset of symptoms.

Incubation Periods of Common Foodborne Pathogens

PATHOGEN INCUBATION PERIOD
Staphylococcus aureus1 to 8 hours, typically 2 to 4 hours.
Campylobacter 2 to 7 days, typically 3 to 5 days.
E. coli O157:H7 1 to 10 days, typically 2 to 5 days.
Salmonella 6 to 72 hours, typically 18-36 hours.
Shigella 12 hours to 7 days, typically 1-3 days.
Hepatitis A 15 to 50 days, typically 25-30 days.
Listeria 3 to 20 days, typically 14 days
Norovirus 24 to 72 hours, typically 36 hours.

How can I find out if I am sick because of something I ate or drank?

Foodborne infections are usually diagnosed by laboratory tests that identify the organism. Bacteria such as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Shigella, and Campylobacter are found by microbiologic testing of the ill person's stool. Parasites can be identified by examining stool specimens under the microscope. Laboratory testing to detect viruses requires stool specimens or serum derived from blood samples. Many foodborne infections are not detected through routine laboratory procedures and health care providers must order appropriate testing before the cause can be identified.

Should I see a doctor if I think I have a foodborne illness?

A person with symptoms of a foodborne illness should seek prompt medical attention if there is blood in the stools, if they are experiencing prolonged vomiting or show signs of dehydration, if diarrhea last 3 days or more or if diarrhea lasts more than 3 days. Anyone at risk for serious consequences - the very young, the very old, or those with immune impairment - should consult a health care provider if symptoms do not improve after 24 hours.

What else should I do?

If you think you have a foodborne illness contact your local health department. They will ask you questions about your symptoms, when they started, and what you have eaten for several days prior to symptom onset. Because some of the organisms that cause illness can be spread by ways other than food, they will ask you about other potential sources such as contact with others with similar symptoms or exposure to animals. This distinction is important so that public health authorities can if necessary, take steps to stop others from becoming ill.

If you know others who have similar symptoms, urge them to contact the health department. Oftentimes, information compiled from a group of individuals provides clues to the source of illness that can be missed when only one person reports to the health department.

If you suspect that your illness is food related, keep any left over food for possible testing. If laboratory tests show the food was contaminated, you will have powerful evidence that the food is the likely cause of your illness. The health department will advise you about any laboratory tests that should be conducted and how long food should be kept. Similarly, keep retail or restaurant receipts showing that you purchased the suspected food. Receipts often contain valuable pieces of information about a food product that the consumer does not know or cannot recall.

Common myths of foodborne illness

As you attempt to determine if you have a foodborne illness and what the potential source could be, avoid these common misconceptions.

The last thing I ate is what made me sick.

Not necessarily. Refer to the table that shows how long it takes for certain microbes to grow inside your body and cause illness. Write down what you ate, where you ate, and when you ate in as much detail as possible. Health department investigators will ask you for this information and accurate recall is critical.

If other people ate what I ate and did not become ill, that particular meal could not be the source of my illness.

Not necessarily. It is well documented that microbes that cause foodborne illness are not always uniformly distributed in a food item. Also, people have different immune systems. One person may consume hamburger prepared from a package of ground beef and become seriously ill with E. coli O157:H7 or Salmonella while his dining companion consumes ground beef from the same package and remains healthy.

Gate Gourmet serves 195 million meals a year, says John Bronson, a company spokesman. "We take our commitment to food safety very seriously," says Bronson, who declined to comment on the litigation.

Although a food safety expert says tainted food on airlines is not common, the Northwest incident is a reminder that food-borne illness is common, and about 76 million people in the U.S. are sickened by tainted food and drink each year, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Summer is peak season for food-borne illness, says Christine Bruhn, director of the Center for Consumer Research at UC Davis and a food safety expert. Travelers are especially vulnerable, as campers become outdoor cooks and others seek out unfamiliar restaurants.

Travelers who are cooking outdoors or scouting out new restaurants can take some simple measures to reduce the odds of illness. Most important for outdoor cooks, says Bruhn, is washing hands thoroughly before handling food and avoiding cross-contamination.

That means not serving the meat you barbecued on the same plate that you used to hold the raw meat without washing it and not using the utensils you used to handle the raw meat for cooked meats.

And the no-mayo rule at picnics? "Commercially prepared mayonnaise is usually safe," says Mike Doyle, a microbiologist at the University of Georgia, Griffin, and a spokesman for the Institute of Food Technologists. "It has sufficient acid - vinegar - to prevent harmful bacteria from growing."

Temperature control is crucial. "Keep hot things hot, cold things cold," Bruhn says. And eat food within two hours of preparation.

If you are dining out in a restaurant, how do you find out if it makes the grade? "Most states do have some sort of grading system," says Donna Garren, of the National Restaurant Assn., a Washington, D.C.-based trade group. Some use letters, others numbers, she says. To check a restaurant's score, see http://www.allfoodbusiness.com/health_inspections.php , a site hosted by restaurant owners.

If nothing is displayed in a restaurant, Garren suggests asking the manager for a recent inspection record. They should be able to provide one, she says.

If there's no grading system or inspection record, look around the dining area, Garren suggests, to get a sense of cleanliness. Bruhn advises visiting the bathroom before ordering food. "When I go to a restaurant, I always go to the restroom first," she says, "to see how the restaurant handles sanitation. Are there soap and towels?" If the restroom is in good shape, that's a good sign the rest of the place is, Bruhn says.

"I must commend the health department for their efforts in this investigation. Given the widespread nature of this outbreak, they did a tremendous job of identifying the outbreak in the first place, then tracing it back to a source," said William Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark, the Seattle law firm nationally recognized for the successful representation of victims of foodborne illness.

Attorneys ask the Court to award plaintiffs punitive damages to "deter [Gate Gourmet] from similar conduct in the future." An April, 2004 inspection by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found numerous health code violations at the Gate Gourmet Honolulu facility that serviced airlines at Honolulu Airport. See http://www.fda.gov/foi/warning_letters/g5318d.htm.

"The FDA noted a host of problems at Gate Gourmet when investigators inspected the Honolulu facility in April. It's only right that the company is punished for continuing to operate with a conscious disregard for the health of consumers," Marler added. "Punitive damages would be the civil justice system's way of punishing Gate Gourmet for not acting to meet health codes and for having knowledge that its products could lead to illness."
Documents Marler Clark obtained from the Minnesota Department of Health indicate that genetically indistinguishable Shigella infections were found in residents of California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington State.