Also called: Food Poisoning
Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Foodborne Illness
Each year, around 48 million people in the United States get sick from contaminated food. Common causes include bacteria and viruses. Less often, the cause may be a parasite or a harmful chemical, such as a high amount of pesticides. Symptoms of foodborne illness depend on the cause. They can be mild or serious. They usually include:
- Upset stomach
- Abdominal cramps
- Nausea and vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Fever
- Dehydration
Most foodborne illnesses are acute. This means that they happen suddenly and last a short time.
It takes several steps to get food from the farm or fishery to your dining table. Contamination can happen during any of these steps. For example, it can happen to:
- Raw meat during slaughter
- Fruits and vegetables when they are growing or when they are processed
- Refrigerated foods when they are left on a loading dock in warm weather
But it can also happen in your kitchen if you leave food out for more than 2 hours at room temperature. Handling food safely can help prevent foodborne illnesses.
Most people with foodborne illness get better on their own. It is important to replace lost fluids and electrolytes to prevent dehydration. If your health care provider can diagnose the specific cause, you may get medicines such as antibiotics to treat it. For more serious illness, you may need treatment at a hospital.
It sits within Digestive System, Food and Nutrition and Poisoning, Toxicology, Environmental Health.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Foodborne Illness
29 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- BT-011 Pharmacokinetics of Botulism Antitoxin Heptavalent in Pediatric PatientsEmergent BioSolutions
- Injection of Botulinum Toxin for Thumb Carpometacarpal ArthritisRhode Island Hospital
- Study of the Drug B11-FC (Botulism Treatment)Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Health Ministry of the Russian Federation
Research already completed
- Tolerability and Immunogenicity of a Single 40-ug Dose of rBV A/B for the Production of BabyBIG®California Department of Public Health
- Retrospective Epidemiological Study on Botulism in Intensive Care Units in FranceCentre Hospitalier le Mans
- Meatsafe Food Storage and Diarrhea Prevention Trial in Urban BangladeshUniversity of California, Berkeley
- Prevention of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning in Subsistence Shellfish Harvest Communities of Southeast AlaskaUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham
- Pilot Study on the Usefulness of 3,4-diaminopyridine in the Treatment of BotulismCentre Hospitalier Universitaire, Amiens
- Staccato Granisetron® (AZ 010) for the Treatment of Cyclic Vomiting SyndromeAlexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- About Food SafetyCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
- About Four Steps to Food SafetyCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
- Food PoisoningMayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
- Food PoisoningDepartment of Health and Human Services
- Food PoisoningNational Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
- Foodborne Illness-Causing Organisms in the U.S.: What You Need to KnowFood and Drug Administration
Diagnosis and Tests
- Bacteria Culture TestNational Library of Medicine
- Ova and Parasite TestNational Library of Medicine
- Stool Tests (For Parents)Nemours Foundation
Prevention and Risk Factors
- Food Safety: MedlinePlus Health TopicNational Library of Medicine
- People at Risk of Foodborne IllnessFood and Drug Administration
- People at Risk: Those with Weakened Immune SystemsDepartment of Health and Human Services
- Preventing Food PoisoningNational Institutes of Health
Statistics and Research
- Burden of Foodborne Illness in the United StatesCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Foodborne DiseasesNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Food Contamination, Foodborne Diseases. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Foodborne Illness, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.