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Symptoms of food poisoning include:

• feeling sick or being sick
• diarrhoea
• tummy pain
• a high temperature
• feeling generally unwell

The symptoms usually start within a few hours or a few days of eating food that caused the infection.

Sometimes symptoms do not start for a few weeks.

If you or your child have food poisoning, you can usually treat it at home.

The symptoms usually get better within a week.

Food poisoning is caused by eating something that has been contaminated with germs.

This can happen if food is:

• not cooked or reheated thoroughly
• not stored correctly – for example, it's not been frozen or chilled
• left out for too long
• handled by someone who's ill or has not washed their hands
• eaten after its "use by" date

Any type of food can cause food poisoning.

Find out more about food hygiene at home from the Food Standards Agency on the GOV.UK website