If ya eat bad clams... how long til you "know" it?

[Papa Deuce]

My buddy was over today and he brought a big bag of clams with him. So we steamed them in chicken broth. Nothing fancy. He just called me and told me he was sick as a dog.

I, OTOH, feel just fine.

 

[Boo'sMom]

1/2-2 hours

 

[mrsv98]

I have read food poisioning hits in under 6 hours as your body digests the food. 24 hours later, you are in the clear and your buddy has a non-clam related bug.

 

[Fan2CSkr]

Could be the clams you ate were fine and he got a bad one.

 

[MOMTOMOOTOO]

All it takes is just one bad clam. The entire batch is not contamenated. I feel for your friend, it's horrible to be sick on clams. blech

 

[CEDmom]

It takes about 4-6 hours to fully digest food so you'll know pretty soon if it was the clams. Hope you're ok.

 

[Geoff_M]

Per the U. of Michigan Med School:

Depending on the cause, you may start having symptoms hours to months after you eat contaminated food. The most common types of food poisoning cause symptoms in 30 minutes to 2 days. Some types of food poisoning by shellfish may take only a few minutes to cause symptoms.

Link

I've read elsewhere that it often takes 24 hours to "kick in". It's a common misconception that it's the last meal you ate... as a result, a lot of restaurants get falsely blamed.

 

[Nancy]

If I was eating clams it wouldn't even take a bad one to make me sick and you would know it immediately!!!


Seriously though, I would think that no more than 6 hours after eating the bad one.

 

[chrissyk]

It took less than an hour the one time that this happened to me. My boyfriend at the time also ate the same batch of clams and didn't get sick. I think that there must have just been one bad one in there. I haven't eaten clams since and I never will again...not worth the risk of getting sick IMHO!!!