Food poisoning
Find out about food poisoning including what the symptoms are, how you can treat yourself at home, when to get medical help, and what causes it.
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 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.
If you or your child have food poisoning, you can usually treat it at home.
The symptoms usually get better within a week.
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.
