Food poisoning

GrumpyWithMoney

I recently had a meal in a restaurant. The first course contained a fried duck egg and I noticed that there was some shell in the egg. An hour or so after eating the starter and whilst waiting for desert, I suddenly developed stomach pains and started feeling ill. On the way to the toilet, I passed out and fell down a flight of stairs. I came too, covered in sweat and I had hurt my wrist. I suffered diarrhoea and stomach pain for the next 7 hours. I told the waiter I was unwell and he brought me some water and after a couple of hours I felt well enough to drive home. The following day, I had recovered apart from the sore wrist. I contacted the restuarant and told them I suspected food poisoning. They denied any responsibilty and stated that all their food was fresh and nobody else had complained. My meal had been put on my girlfiend's tab as she was staying at the hotel for the weekend. On her departure she was charged the full amount for the meals, despite her mentioning the incident to the staff . I was wondering what my rights were and the actions I should take (or have taken)?
Note I was in perfect health when I arrived at the restaurant and I had to abandon the meal and the wine due to the sudden illness. I have since read that duck eggs (and their shells) can carry salmonella.

brettcta

you're right, they can carry salmonella and although you felt ill in this instance, salmonella has an onset period of 6-72 hours after ingestion, meaning that either you ate something else that was infected earlier on, or it was some other form of enteritis or allergic reaction

did you keep a sample of the egg? if you were wanting to pursue compensation, you'd do well to send a sample off for testing. if it's a large hotel, environmental health would need to know aswell because of the risk to other customers, despite the fact you were told that no one else had complained.

i'll get my uni hat on and get back to you in a while

Welshwoofs

You would not have Salmonella poisoning if you were ill an hour after eating contaminated food, it's takes at least 8 hours for symptoms to show.

You could get symptoms from Staphylococcus after an hour however, but it sounds a little odd that you were as right as rain the very next morning. Generally you'd be crapping through the eye of a needle for a day or two.

I fear you'll find it rather hard to prove anything unless you kept a sample of the egg or other diners who had the same dish also got ill.

gordikin

I know of no food poisoning organisms that could cause the the symptoms you experienced, ie onset after 1 hour and disappearing after a period of 7 hours. I think it sounds more like some sort of allergic reaction to be honest.

Ivory_Tinkler

Gordikin you beat me to it - I was going to say exactly the same thing and if this is the case, then the restaurant could surely not be liable. Food poisoning takes longer to develop and would last longer.

4743hudsonj

maybe Mr K and Choc have moved away from large supermarkets? Now theyre on to large hotel chains

brettcta

if it's mr k/choc, i'll be billing them for my words

GrumpyWithMoney

They had already cleared away the first course and the second course before I felt unwell. Also, I hadn't eaten since a light lunch that day 7 hours earlier which was a vegetable salad followed by fruit (definitely no meat or eggs). The hotel is reasonably large and expensive an the meal was not cheap.

GrumpyWithMoney

From the nhs website:

The time it takes for symptoms to develop after eating contaminated food is called the incubation period.
The incubation period can range from one hour to 90 days. Most cases of food poisoning have an incubation period of between one and three days.
The most common symptoms of food poisoning are:

• nausea,
• vomiting, and
• diarrhoea.

Other symptoms of food poisoning include:

• stomach cramps,
• abdominal pain,
• loss of appetite,
• a high temperature (fever) of 38°C (100.4°F) or above,
• muscle pain, and
• chills.

brettcta

it doesn't have to be animal-based to make you ill. there are certain bacteria that'll live happily on fruit & vegetables if they're not stored & prepared properly (or even, sometimes, when they are)

the 7 hour time frame makes sense that it may have been the salad lunch rather than the egg that's made you ill. some bacteria need this long to incubate & infect you as they dont actually cause an onset of illness until they reach the lower end of the digestive system

gordikin

Being large and expensive is neither here nor there. This year's Heston Blumenthal Fat Duck food poisoning outbreak demonstrates this.