14 Typical Food Poisoning Symptoms

Food poisoning refers to what happens when someone ingests a food that is contaminated with any kind of virus, bacteria or parasite; it’s commonly experienced when you eat food that’s a little too long past the expiry date, or if you eat food at a restaurant where the kitchen doesn’t comply to the hygiene standards it should – sometimes it’s even something as simple as one employee who neglects to wash their hands before getting near your salad.

It’s a highly unpleasant condition, and it can even be deadly: It’s estimated that approximately 5, 000 people die from food poisoning and other food-related illnesses every year. That’s likely a much higher number than you might have thought – and it makes food poisoning a lot scarier than you might have previously considered.

Typically, food poisoning kicks in a few hours or sometimes days after you have eaten something affected. Here are 9 typical food poisoning symptoms to look out for.

1. Feeling Faint

One of the first symptoms of food poisoning might manifest as the fact that you are simply feeling a little faint; this is a symptom that most people might not think much of, but it’s a symptom that’s almost certainly always a sign of something that’s wrong in the body – usually either a sign of low blood sugar or blood pressure, which can be caused by the beginnings of food poisoning starting to take hold in your body.

It’s most common for the symptoms of food poisoning to show up within a few hours to sometimes a few days within ingesting the affected food, so pay close attention to when your symptoms start showing up – this can be a huge help if you are looking to track down the source of what might have given you food poisoning in the first place.

If you start to feel faint, have your blood sugar and blood pressure tested first.