Once a food poisoning notification or complaint is received, we will contact the person with the symptoms and ask them questions regarding:
- what and where they've eaten prior to their illness
- details of their symptoms
- whether they've been on holiday abroad
- whether or not their GP has taken a faecal sample
- whether anybody else they ate with also experienced any symptoms.
- We may request that person to provide a faecal sample.
If a person with symptoms is a food handler or health care/nursery worker who has direct contact or contact through serving food, with highly susceptible patients or persons in whom an intestinal infection would have serious consequences, they cannot return to work until they are symptom-free for 48 hours.
They must also inform their employer of their symptoms.
Parents or guardians of children aged under five years or children or adults unable to implement good standards of personal hygiene, are advised to keep them away from school or other establishments until they have also been symptom free for 48 hours.
Food poisoning outbreaks
If a number of people ate at the same venue and have the same food poisoning-type symptoms, this may be due to a Food Poisoning Outbreak. Our investigation into the outbreak will involve:
- interviewing people who are ill
- interviewing others who ate at the venue but didn't have symptoms
- taking faecal and food samples (if appropriate)
- inspecting the implicated venue.
If there is enough evidence implicating a food premises within the district as a possible source of the outbreak, we may decide to carry out a food hygiene inspection (see for action we can take following a food inspection).
If you believe that you are suffering from food poisoning (i.e. sickness and diarrhoea), or would like advice on preventing food poisoning, please contact the Food Team on 01362 656870 or email foodteam@breckland.gov.uk.
If you would like information on infectious diseases, please follow the link to the Infectious Diseases page.
If you would like information from the Food Standards Agency, you can follow the link to .www.foodstandards.gov.uk
More pages about other aspects of the work of the Breckland Food Safety Team can be found at www.breckland.gov/food.
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