Food poisoning in the park?

[pelagoram]

Anyone else get food poisoning from the hot chocolate in the park last night? (Friday, December 8)

Have a nasty case of food poisoning in our party - hot chocolate from the churro stand in front of the castle is the common thread.

 

[lizabu]

You should call any place you got food poisoning as soon as possible. They are required to report it to the health board. The most important thing is if you have an idea what time you were there and what you consumed it can be tested. You will also prevent it being served to someone else. You could prevent other people from getting sick. Most times what people think is food poisoning actually isn't but to be safe it's best to report any possible cases.

 

[bumbershoot]

Isn't Disney's hot chocolate just powder in water?

 

[jory29]

How many in your party fell ill from drinking it? It seems like an odd thing to get good poisoning from as the temp. of the hot chocolate would generally probably be hot enough to kill off bacteria assuming it came from a machine, but I don't know... was there anything else in common you and your party had eaten/drank the day or so before? I hope you get better soon!!

 

[MrsMears]

Hmm... you've posted in several Disneyland forums about this.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Sorry this happened to you. Agree with lizabu, though, that what most people think of as food poisoning usually is something else. Is it possible that one of your group unknowingly had a stomach bug and gave it to everyone else? (Which is still a yucky experience, but not Disney's fault.)

 

[disneegrl4eva]

Sorry this happened to you. Agree with lizabu, though, that what most people think of as food poisoning usually is something else. Is it possible that one of your group unknowingly had a stomach bug and gave it to everyone else? (Which is still a yucky experience, but not Disney's fault.)

Yeah I have to agree with this I have never in my entire life heard of someone getting food poisoning from hot cocoa especially when the hot cocoa is Nestlé which is a powder form and yes they do mix it with just water... It has to be something else and I do think it may have been a stomach bug but even if it wasn't I doubt seriously it was the hot chocolate

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[Kilala]

Thier Hot Chocolate is horrable. I have has some and I had to add alot of sugar. I'm so sorry you got sick from it

 

[tchrrx]

Actually, just last month Nestle' recalled their chocolate powder. I don't know if this is what Disney uses, but it is a possibility.

http://southcobb.patch.com/articles/nestl-recalls-some-hot-chocolate-powder-19c6b083

 

[disneegrl4eva]

Wow I am surprised to hear that however just to be clear it was nesquick which is the cold drink ....they don't use nesquick for hot chocolate... They use the hot chocolate mix

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[bumbershoot]

Actually, just last month Nestle' recalled their chocolate powder. I don't know if this is what Disney uses, but it is a possibility.

http://southcobb.patch.com/articles/nestl-recalls-some-hot-chocolate-powder-19c6b083

Ooh, interesting. Though they do say "No other varieties of NESQUIK powder or any sizes or flavors of NESQUIK ready-to-drink are affected by this recall." And I bet any given kiosk would use a container that holds more than 40 oz.


Ah, good to know, disneegrl4eva. I thought so (I was sort of thinking "if ONLY they used Nesquick, that stuff is borderline good, not like the awful hot chocolate I've had at Disney") but haven't had it in ages.




I think that if I ever thought we'd gotten food poisoning, I would go to an ER and have things collected and tested. Just to make sure.

Then again, twice now MIL has been hospitalized (for almost a week each time) for what we really felt was food poisoning (from her own fridge...she keeps things in there for AGES), but the tests always came back inconclusive, or for really common things.

 

[pelagoram]

Hmm... Yes I did post this on one other "Disneyland forum," if that's what you mean by "several." Is that somehow a problem around these parts?

Not sure about the powder and water recipe. Seemed like it had milk or cream in the mix too, but I'm by no means a connoisseur. Actually tasted pretty good to our unrefined palates.

In any case, yeah - I agree, Jory, hot chocolate seems like it'd be a strange source for food poisoning. Just found it a bit odd that the 3 members of our group who got sick were the only ones who drank the hot chocolate, and all got sick within a few hours of drinking it. Everyone else is healthy - the hot chocolate was the only commonality that existed among the sickies vs the non-sickies.

Probably just a case of correlation, not (necessarily) causation.

 

[Somegirl]

You can get stomach viruses that are very much like food poisoning from people that handle food. The person that handled the cups may have passed something on that got your group sick. It's no fun getting sick on vacation.

 

[elstoleno]

I'm not 100% on where you're from, or the standards in the US but I know that here in Europe we're not supposed to drink non branded/bottled water or consume ice cream for example in another European country as it can make us sick (something to do with chlorine amounts maybe?).

Not sure if its like that state to state in the US, but if it is, that could be how you all felt sick.

 

[lizabu]

If it was food poisoning it was more likely cross contanimation than the actual hot chocolate so it's always possible.

Drinking water In US, Canada and most European countries won't make you sick. There are other countries that don't have the water purification methods we have. If you go somewhere like Egypt for example. I went there once an even being very careful I was sick as heck.

It can be really hard to tell the difference between a stomach bug and food poisoning. The symptoms are pretty much the same.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I'm not 100% on where you're from, or the standards in the US but I know that here in Europe we're not supposed to drink non branded/bottled water or consume ice cream for example in another European country as it can make us sick (something to do with chlorine amounts maybe?).

Not sure if its like that state to state in the US, but if it is, that could be how you all felt sick.

Generally speaking, unless there is a specific warning issued by the health department about drinking water in a specific location (e.g. warning about a breach in a sanitation system pipe, parasites in a lake, etc.), the water in the U.S. is fine to drink. Standards are high for water and for dairy products. If the water isn't for drinking (e.g. reclaimed water for landscaping), there should be a warning sign stating that the water is not potable. The tap water tastes a lot better in some places than it does in others, but overall it is safe to drink.

Disney is vigilant about the standards of food and water in its parks. Can you imagine that they wouldn't be? Why would they risk the health and lives of their guests so recklessly? (And with all the people with serious health issues who visit, the risk would indeed be high.) It is much more likely that the OP and friends fell sick because of a contagious person, than from the food or water in the parks.

 

[SilentFeline]

Food poisoning is really tricky. It's always easiest to think that whatever you had last was the cause of it, but it can actually take up to a week for people to develop symptoms after consumption of an affected item. That makes it almost impossible to find out what really caused it. It does seem unlikely that hot chocolate was responsible for causing illness among the people in your group, but anything is possible. Just keep in mind that it really could have been anything consumed within the week.