What should you know about acute food poisoning?

Many episodes settle with rest and careful hydration, but severe symptoms, dehydration, or illness in someone at higher risk deserve medical assessment.

Food poisoning is illness caused by food or drink contaminated with germs or their toxins. The timing and symptom pattern vary with the cause: illness may begin soon after eating or only after a delay, so the last meal is not always responsible.

Diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, and fever are common presentations of food poisoning. Similar symptoms can occur with other infections and abdominal conditions, so a clinician may need to assess persistent, severe, or unusual illness.

Take frequent small sips of water or an oral rehydration solution, especially after loose stools or vomiting. If nausea makes drinking difficult, begin with small amounts and increase them as tolerated. Resume simple foods when appetite returns rather than forcing a meal.

Rest, wash hands thoroughly with soap and water, and avoid preparing food for other people while unwell. Do not start antibiotics or anti-diarrhoeal medicine without suitable advice; the right choice depends on the suspected cause, fever, blood in the stool, other medicines, and medical history.

Seek urgent care if you cannot keep liquids down, pass very little urine, feel faint or confused, have blood or black material in vomit or stool, develop severe or worsening abdominal pain, or have trouble breathing, swallowing, seeing clearly, or moving normally.

Arrange prompt advice for persistent diarrhoea, a high or ongoing fever, symptoms that are not improving, or illness after eating wild mushrooms or a potentially toxic food. Contact a clinician early if the patient is pregnant, very young, older, immunocompromised, or living with significant kidney or heart disease.

Ask whether your symptoms or recent meals suggest a specific infection, whether a stool test is appropriate, and which fluids or medicines are safe with your health conditions. Mention travel, sick contacts, shared meals, pregnancy, recent antibiotics, and any blood in the stool.