Foodborne Illness and Eating Out

This forum is an ideal place to ask this question, given all the fearless eaters.

Recently I discovered that my lack of discrimination wrt eating establishments had an unexpected consequence. Namely, I picked up a hitchhiker from somewhere (I've named him Herman) and this led to a lecture from my physician vis a vis my eating habits, particularly my love of raw things.

I suppose I'll have to be more circumspect from now on, though I hate the thought - a life in which I pass up questionable-but-tasty restaurants and kiss kitfo goodbye seems like a sad one indeed.

So, LTH: how does the possibility of foodborne illness affect your dining M.O.? Did a case of poisoning radically change your habits?

I did learn my lesson about a particular take-out place near where I went to college (several states away) after two bouts of illness (I'm a slow learner).

Mostly food-poisoning type experiences give me food aversions much like the flu does. Thinking about eating food X after I just got sick after eating it (even if the food itself had nothing to do with it) makes me feel sick all over again. But I wouldn't say the vague risk of food poisoning alters my food habits at all. Though I wouldn't likely be dining anywhere someone described as "questionable but tasty" anyway.

Hi,

I had a moment of deja vu reading this post. Did a little search to find you initiated nearly the same topic a few months ago: worst meal ever.

For those who want to offer their anecdotes, then please note it is not welcome to name the establishment's name nor hint at it. If you have a serious claim, then take it to the health department authorities.

Regards,

By "questionable but tasty" I mean holes in the wall, carts, places like that. Not "questionable" in the sense that you have to share a table with roaches and the bathroom lacks soap.

Edit to Cathy2: I do recall that thread, but I think the focus of this one is a little different. That one was to discuss the actual poisonings, while this one is more about how the threat or reality of foodborne illnesses can change our eating habits.

For example: mad cow. Salmonella scares. Have things like that affected your choice of restaurants, or do they have no effect whatsoever?

Luckily food poisoning has never been an issue for me.

However a salmonela scare, or a restaurant being closed down for health code violations puts that establishment on a list of places I will never try, or never return to.

I worked in restaurants for a long time, some spotless, and some not as much so(with that said nowhere I worked ever got shut down). Based on these years working in these places, I know that a place has to be really bad, & putting the public at risk to get shut down by the Health Department. Typically chronic problems that have been ignored over time, so a place closed down by the Health Dept. deserves it, and does not deserve my business.

jimswside wrote:However a salmonela scare, or a restaurant being closed down for health code violations puts that establishment on a list of places I will never try, or never return to.

It is this very reaction why LTHforum maintains a very high bar for reporting restaurant shut downs and health code violations. If left unchecked, it would be ripe for competitive abuse.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:

jimswside wrote:However a salmonela scare, or a restaurant being closed down for health code violations puts that establishment on a list of places I will never try, or never return to.

It is this very reaction why LTHforum maintains a very high bar for reporting restaurant shut downs and health code violations. If left unchecked, it would be ripe for competitive abuse.

Regards,

I can see why LTH monitors this issue closely. Isn't there a website in Chicago or Cook County to check what restaurants have been closed down, or cited for violations?

I think that a lot of people are ready to claim "food-borne illness" or "food poisoning" everytime that they suffer a stomach ache or vomiting.

In reality, it is not all that common and when food poisoning actually does happen, you'll see the emergency rooms in the vacinity fill up. In general, most health departments start to get involved when there are three or more UNRELATED people report symptoms and they can trace it to an event or a particular eating ot drinking establishment. And that is generally pretty uncommon.

Chicago's Food Protection Division – Food Inspection Reporting System

http://webapps.cityofchicago.org/health/inspection.jsp

jlawrence01 wrote:I think that a lot of people are ready to claim "food-borne illness" or "food poisoning" everytime that they suffer a stomach ache or vomiting.

In reality, it is not all that common and when food poisoning actually does happen, you'll see the emergency rooms in the vacinity fill up. In general, most health departments start to get involved when there are three or more UNRELATED people report symptoms and they can trace it to an event or a particular eating ot drinking establishment. And that is generally pretty uncommon.

Actually, foodborne illnesses are very common. The CDC estimates that there are 76 million cases of foodborne disease each year in the United States so you have about a 1 in 4 chance of getting (mildly) sick from something you eat this year.

If I choose to eat something raw or very rare, or runny eggs, I am choosing to take a known risk. If I were to become sick in this context, I wouldn't hold it against the establishment that served me the risky food. I didn't feel so great after a recent meal that included raw clams, but I still hold that restaurant in high regard (in fact, I'm still not 100% convinced the clams were the source of the problem).

When illness results from food that I should reasonably expect to be safe, then the place is blacklisted. One of my worst bouts resulted from an innocuous turkey sandwich - looked fine, smelled fine, tasted fine. That place has since closed.

The only other times I have suffered food-borne illness have resulted from home cooked meals.

For example: mad cow. Salmonella scares. Have things like that affected your choice of restaurants, or do they have no effect whatsoever?

Believe the gestation period for bse (mad cow) is 7+ years...but the risk of contracting in this country is almost nonexistent....and certainly no reflection on the restaurant

Fujisan wrote:Actually, foodborne illnesses are very common. The CDC estimates that there are 76 million cases of foodborne disease each year in the United States so you have about a 1 in 4 chance of getting (mildly) sick from something you eat this year.

Tell me about it! A couple years ago I got hit with three cases of food poisoning in a year--all at home in Chicago. The same year, I traveled through Africa, eating at more than a few places where sanitation standards and food storage were primative, to say the least, and didn't get hit once. (Not to say that it doesn't happen...on the same trip, my brother and another friend were felled after drinking OJ that they were mistakenly served instead of the Fanta they'd ordered. I had been drinking OJ up until that point, but stopped for the rest of the trip.)

Mild cases of food poisoning are very common and most people attribute them to "stomach flu."

Some years ago I had a case of severe gastroenteritis that required emergency room treatment. I didn't know it was food poisoning until the hospital tested and diagnosed campylobacteriosis. After that, I was interviewed by the doctors about where and what I had eaten and who else had eaten it. The hospital reported it to the Illinois Dept. of Health, who also called to interview me.

The incubation period for this bacteria is a long one and it just so happened that during it I had only eaten packaged goods or shared meals except for one restaurant dinner in a Chicago suburb. When I spoke to the sanitarian for the suburb, it turned out he had coincidently inspected the day after I had my meal in the place -- they scored 50 out of 100 on their inspection and he had already ordered the staff to sanitation school (although he had not closed the restaurant).

My illness in this case was quite serious. I required intravenous fluids twice for dehydration and between the bacteria and the massive doses of antibiotics used for treatment, it was several months before I felt completely well again.

It took several years and a trip to the country involved before I felt comfortable eating that particular ethnic cuisine again, although it had been a favorite previously. (In fact, I contracted a mild case of travelers' upset on the trip, too, but it also reminded me of how much I enjoyed the cuisine.) I will never go back to the particular restaurant involved.

I guess I'm more careful in general, though probably not as careful as I should be.

This is a good thread. I guess one of the ways I alter my food experience is that I always order a burger "well" done. I'm not sure when the meat was ground or if it was a mass produced frozen patty. Typically, they try to overcook the burger and burn the outside while the inside is still pink. In this case I won't eat the burger and won't send it back either. I just chalk it up to the fact that they can't cook a burger properly so I shouldn't be eating that dish there.

I won't eat a tartar unless it's a high quality place (really high quality). Same for ceviche. Ordering sandwiches sometimes poses a risk if the turnover isn't that fast (listeria being the main culprit). I actually prefer that the meat either be sliced to order or that the place is churning out a lot of product so I know it's not sitting around for a while. I almost never order seafood unless I'm in a seafood restaurant. On top of that, I only order certain seafood as well, depending if I'm at a high-end place or a taqueria or asian food restaurant. I'm sure there are others that I'm not thinking of right now...