Does a person feel sick immediately after eating bad (contaminated) food?
Not always. It depends on what caused the symptoms. • Food-borne illness caused by bacterial toxins in food or chemical contamination of food usually happens shortly after eating, within 2-4 hours. • Food-borne infections may take several days to cause illness. Salmonella usually takes between 12-24 hours, but may take as long as 3 days. E. coli 0157:H7 usually takes 3 or 4 days, but may take up to 8 days to cause symptoms. • Food-borne illness caused by the virus hepatitis A usually takes thirty days, but may be as long as 50 days.
