Would you tell a local restaurant about possible food poisoning?

[robinb]

We had dinner with my DD and her boyfriend at a local sushi restaurant on Wednesday around 5:30 pm. They are both vegetarians so they had veggie rolls and we eat raw fish so we had different things to eat. She just texted me to tell me that they both started vomiting around 11pm on Wednesday night. She also had a fever and body aches (no diarrhea) but is feeling better today. Norovirus is also apparently going around so she thinks they may have had that. I don't know. They both eat the same thing and both got sick at the same time. My DH and I are both fine.

Should I call the restaurant and let them know? I'm not looking for any compensation, just to let them know that they may have something that is making people sick.

 

[ShirikiUtundu]

Norovirus is raging through the US right now. That seems the more likely culprit.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

The fever, chills and longer duration make it sound more like "stomach flu" than food poisoning. But I'm not a doctor, and no one here took a sample for testing either, so......

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

These statements are just my opinion. If it was norovirus chances are you'd be hearing about it on the news relatively soon. While symptoms can point to norovirus they can also point to other food borne illnesses. Chances are IMO you'd be sick too if it was norovirus since it spreads so quick and can more easily be from an employee.

Here's a list from the CDC of various food poisoning. https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/symptoms.html I would not immediately jump to norovirus as there are others that can fit and norovirus is known to knock out tons of people at the same time.

And yes I would tell the establishment immediately and also review any other places they've eaten in the last several days or food they've eating in the last several days.

 

[sam_gordon]

We had dinner with my DD and her boyfriend at a local sushi restaurant on Wednesday around 5:30 pm. They are both vegetarians so they had veggie rolls and we eat raw fish so we had different things to eat. She just texted me to tell me that they both started vomiting around 11pm on Wednesday night. She also had a fever and body aches (no diarrhea) but is feeling better today. Norovirus is also apparently going around so she thinks they may have had that. I don't know. They both eat the same thing and both got sick at the same time. My DH and I are both fine.

Should I call the restaurant and let them know? I'm not looking for any compensation, just to let them know that they may have something that is making people sick.

Based on the "evidence" you've presented, no, I don't think calling the restaurant on something that MIGHT be is warranted.

 

[dez1978]

Norovirus can be passed by a number of things, so it's hard to pin it on a restaruant. And even if there are a large number of people that got sick at a certain place, it could have come from a customer, not an employee or the food. Can you get it from food, sure. But you can also get it from the bathroom door, or the door to the restaurant, or serving utensils at a buffet, or anything else you touch. So even if it came from the restaurant, it isn't always something they did wrong. And if that was the source, there would likely be a ton of people on your local fb page asking the same questions.

But to answer your question, it might be worth a call just to let them know in case there were more people who got sick so that they can track it down.

 

[fla4fun]

I think the key is how the call is made. If it comes across as an FYI, as in “We are just letting you know in case anyone else had any problems the same night.” instead of “We ate in your restaurant and got sick from the food.” then I think letting the restaurant know is fine. It could be a virus or it could be the food, and it could be an employee with a virus preparing the food, so in my opinion an FYI is warranted where an accusation is not.

Sorry the OP’s family was sick either way.

 

[nw6675]

We know we got poisoning from Red Lobster, but we didn't say anything since we ate the same things and we had no way of knowing which item.

I can say that Noro is the worst. DH, DD, and I had it and passed it accidentally to my Dad and grandmother. DH and grandmother were hospitalized. It was awful. Somehow my mom missed out on the "fun".

 

[robinb]

I think the key is how the call is made. If it comes across as an FYI, as in “We are just letting you know in case anyone else had any problems the same night.” instead of “We ate in your restaurant and got sick from the food.” then I think letting the restaurant know is fine. It could be a virus or it could be the food, and it could be an employee with a virus preparing the food, so in my opinion an FYI is warranted where an accusation is not.

Sorry the OP’s family was sick either way.

Right. I don't want to pin anything on them and it certainly could be Norovirus because my daughter worked with kids earlier in the day. Plus, I'll eat there again for sure. I'm not mad at them nor do I want compensation. I just thought that if I called and other people called then they might have a heads up about a possible problem.

 

[ronandannette]

I think it would be worth informing the restaurant that two of their recent patrons have suspected Noro. Not to lay blame, but to give them an opportunity to step-up the cleaning-and-sanitizing protocols so it doesn't spread, as it is at least vaguely possible that your party actually brought the germ in with you. This is what they do on cruise-ships (where outbreaks can very easily spread).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Based on the "evidence" you've presented, no, I don't think calling the restaurant on something that MIGHT be is warranted.

In the real world, not some WWYD internet forum, this stuff is serious and can potentially save lives as well as curb the number of people sick. Any place where someone could have gotten sick from should get a call. And if something ends up being an outbreak it's imperative the CDC has a way of knowing who, what ,when where and why.

Some people on this board really worry me with how they treat this topic.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I would definitely call the restaurant just to let them know. They may have already had similar calls, had an employee out sick or something else that could be related. It would help them to know if they need to check their food storage system or do some extra sanitizing. As others have said, I certainly wouldn't accuse them, rather just be informative. I think it's important to note that food poisoning can take time to manifest into symptoms. Some people think it must be the last thing they ate because that's what comes up. That's not always necessarily true. It could have been something they ate the day before or earlier the same day.

Several years ago, I was at a wedding reception for DH's co-worker that served the food family style. They brought various dishes to each table and we took our serving and passed it around. There were about 300 people at the wedding which was on a Saturday. I was fine on Sunday. I woke up Monday morning with a pain in the center of my abdomen. The pain just sat there all day and I wasn't very hungry. It wasn't until Monday evening (2 full days after the wedding) that I started feeling nauseous.

DH found out at work that several co-workers who were at our table also got sick. Then he learned that many of the guests got sick. A good number ended up in the ER for dehydration. It's pretty obvious that the wedding food/venue was the culprit. DH knew the food would be mostly fish (which he doesn't like) so he ate before the reception. I like fish and sampled many of the dishes that came around. Those who went to the ER were told it was most likely Norovirus which could have been passed around by an employee. For example, if it was one person's job to put the serving utensils in each dish, they could quickly infect everyone who touched them. It wasn't fun, but I fared much better than some of the guests. The bride and groom were off in Hawaii and were horrified to learn what had happened. I felt badly for them to have their wedding end that way.

 

[OneOftheB's]

So, I was a health inspector for 13 years and involved in many food borne illness complaints during that time. Probably 95% of complaint driven inspections either showed no supporting evidence (improper food handling, no report of missing or sick employees etc) but that 5% became a snowball quickly.

So, my opinion is not to call the restaurant but your local health/restaurant inspector. If there are other reports of illness, it’s is very helpful to narrow down times lines and what caused the illnesses. They may ask you daughter for quite a bit of info and possibly a stool specimen to help narrow down the pathogen. Tell her to be prepared to let them know what she & her partner ate 72 hours prior to becoming ill, that’s one of the starting points. We occasionally found that someone called in about one restaurant but they actually became sick from eating an item a day or two before symptoms arose.

 

[DLgal]

Norovirus is raging through the US right now. That seems the more likely culprit.

Norovirus IS food poisoning, if a restaurant worker spread it due to poor hygiene.

There is also stuff like e coli and salmonella, listeria, etc. The mode of transmission is what categorizes something as food poisoning.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

So, I was a health inspector for 13 years and involved in many food borne illness complaints during that time. Probably 95% of complaint driven inspections either showed no supporting evidence (improper food handling, no report of missing or sick employees etc) but that 5% became a snowball quickly.

So, my opinion is not to call the restaurant but your local health/restaurant inspector. If there are other reports of illness, it’s is very helpful to narrow down times lines and what caused the illnesses. They may ask you daughter for quite a bit of info and possibly a stool specimen to help narrow down the pathogen. Tell her to be prepared to let them know what she & her partner ate 72 hours prior to becoming ill, that’s one of the starting points. We occasionally found that someone called in about one restaurant but they actually became sick from eating an item a day or two before symptoms arose.

You beat me to it. Good post. It’s important when these things happen to check in with both local and state Depts of Public Health. This is what they do - they have the broader view of things. It’s important, if food is adulterated, that it’s investigated. People can not only get really sick, but can die from these things, especially children and the elderly.

My DH works with food. Just last week he had a 3 day unannounced FDA inspection. He is also visited by the DPH, and food samples are regularly taken to a lab to be sure no adulterants are present. Not sure how it works on a small scale restaurant but there’s little doubt the DPH would want to know about it to help prevent others from getting sick. Sometimes it’s a matter of something small like someone keeping a wet rag by a sink to wash things that transmits germs. Inspectors go over everything with a fine tooth comb.

@robinb As the poster I quoted mentioned, it would’ve been helpful for your daughter and her boyfriend to submit stool samples while they were sick so whatever they had could potentially be identified. It’s probably passed by now, but I hope they’re feeling better. I would have a hard time eating there again! But others are right, it could’ve been something they’d ingested even before you all went to that restaurant. Still, negative associations!

 

[EACarlson]

I was a restaurant manager for a few years in one of the strictest health departments areas of the country. I would absolutely want to know, even if it's a one off and not related to the restaurant at all, if I'm aware then I can start working to limit exposure.

 

[brockash]

We had dinner with my DD and her boyfriend at a local sushi restaurant on Wednesday around 5:30 pm. They are both vegetarians so they had veggie rolls and we eat raw fish so we had different things to eat. She just texted me to tell me that they both started vomiting around 11pm on Wednesday night. She also had a fever and body aches (no diarrhea) but is feeling better today. Norovirus is also apparently going around so she thinks they may have had that. I don't know. They both eat the same thing and both got sick at the same time. My DH and I are both fine.

Should I call the restaurant and let them know? I'm not looking for any compensation, just to let them know that they may have something that is making people sick.

I guess I would assume the restaurant wouldn't really care and would much rather assume it was something else and dismiss your concerns so I wouldn't waste my time.