Years ago, I bought a couple of sandwiches from a sandwich shop. About 3 hours after eating 1/2 of it, I became very sick. About 4 hours after my mother had ate 1/2 of her sandwich, she became very sick with vomiting ,stomach pain also. We had 2 different sandwiches. I went to the sandwich store the next day with what was left of the sandwiches to tell them, and there was a notice on the door from the health department, that if you had bought any sandwich from the place within the last 24-36 hours that you were to contact the health department, which I did, and gave them the sandwiches . Over 75 people had gotten food poisoning from the place. They tracked it down to the mayonnaise. The people of the shop left it sitting out in 95 degree temps.

Here's the thing: I never get GI illnesses. Not through all the bouts of the stomach flu that my husband and the kids have had over the years, not through all of the years of eating out at restaurants, just never. I lived overseas when I was a kid and I think I was exposed to enough pathogens to develop a very strong immune system.
Whatever this was, it was powerful and nasty, and I had never encountered it before, apparently. My husband was down twice as long from it as I was.

Usually you can smell bad food, so I definitely don't think that this was food poisoning, I think this was a cross-contamination pathogen issue from improper food handling. I know that this was an isolated case for this place, as I have eaten there many times before and several times since. If I had to worry about getting sick from eating, I would never eat at any restaurants again, not just this one.

I'm sorry to hear about your food poisoning! (to everyone here who had it, too!)

I think it's awful that a MSC/client would bar people due to food poisoning. I also think it's awful that a person may have no recourse if they are food poisoned. It's scary to me, because I did get food poisoning long ago BEFORE I was a mystery shopper, at a pizza place. I vomited so violently that I tore a hole in my stomach. Had to be hospitalized for nutrition and pain management for nearly a week. After hospitalization, could only eat soft stuff, like pudding, yogurt, pancakes, etc for 2 weeks! It was really an ordeal!

That said, I would HATE to have that type of hospital bill and experience from a shop and get no recourse as a result.

And, to take it a step further, it makes you wonder how MSC's would handle certain other "dangerous" situations. Sometimes I feel like we shoppers are "just a number," so to speak. Or worse, by how SOME schedulers and editors treat us from time to time. There was a gas station shop years ago that I would not pick up. I picked up the locations in other parts of town, but not this one particular one. Scheduler would try to offer more money, cajole me, etc. I told her I would not do it because there had been a shooting there recently and it was a REALLY bad part of town. She apologized. She did not know my town and did not know this shop was in a dangerous area, of course. She reported it to her supervisor and the shop disappeared from the job board soon after.

Oh my, that is so awful, Jill. That is extreme and I can't imagine! I am glad you recovered. This kind of thing makes me wonder how someone older or with a compromised immune system would deal (general public). It sounds like the MSCs often want to keep their clients to the extent that shoppers are dispensable and expendable.

Sorry for any illnesses! Yuck.

I would not have included the sickness in my report. It would be an assumption, and not be possible to prove the illness was a result of the food, within the period of time allowed to report. If there was a narrative section, which would not to be shared with the client. I would add it there. Or, I would inform the scheduler, in a sidebar manner. The last time I did this, I had purchased a severely under-cooked rotisserie chicken on a shop. The scheduler advised that this information not be included in the report. She suggested that I bring this to the attention of the location, giving them the opportunity to make things right, both in-house, and by me.

The way I wrote it in my report it was fact based. I ate the food and become ill several hours later. I also put that I could not say for certain what made me ill. If the scheduler wants to remove it so be it he edits the report. My job is to report the facts not edit out the bad facts so the client does not get upset. At least you were able to deal with the client directly. See the concern I have comes from my day job. If I’m representing a company I want to know that people may he getting sick from the food served. What happens is the say five people get sick and don’t report then the 6th person dies.

Lisannez, it's very unusual for a scheduler to be an editor, too. As a former editor, I can say that if I had a report come through with this information, I would have asked my supervisor what to do and it's possible I may have been told to omit the information. I don't know for sure as it never happened to me when I was an editor. However, to be sure that the client gets the information, it would be best to contact the scheduler in a separate email..

Interesting because the same person that scheduled me is the one editing the report. Maybe short staffed? He’s really nice and helpful a pleasure to deal with honestly.

Smaller companies may have one person who handles the entire project.

sandyf is correct, generally food born illnesses take 24-48 hours, some much longer.

"Symptoms from the most common types of food poisoning will often start within 2 to 6 hours of eating the food. That time may be longer or shorter, depending on the cause of the food poisoning."[medlineplus.gov]

And also, sometimes it's not the food! It could be someone not washing their hands properly and/or using utensils, cutting boards, etc. for raw meat and then salad ingredients, etc. afterwards. I know someone who got salmonella from a salad that did not have a mayonnaise based dressing or any chicken, eggs, etc. on it. It was just a salad with vinaigrette and was the only thing they ate. And yes, this was diagnosed and confirmed at the hospital.

Right. I have worked on food safety cases, so I am well aware of the types of food contamination that can occur. Does some take longer, sure it does, but the majority that I have seen come on pretty quickly. During the whole lettuce contamination thing earlier this year I was at an event at a pretty snazzy joint, not shopping but social. The lettuce was indeed contaminated and people became ill at the event. Yes people started vomiting within two hours of eating the stuff it was a scene, many could not even make it to the restroom that's how quickly it came on. And it was 15 people. The lettuce was letter tested and it was confirmed, so it happens.

Sometimes you simply can't tell from the taste or smell of the food if it's bad or not. I got food poisoning from clam chowder once, but it sure tasted yummy while I was eating it. A friend of mine got it from eating seafood, and he said it tasted and smelled fine. Seafood seems to be a big culprit, as Irene also had an experience. And, like JASFLALMT says, it can be something introduced by a food worker, not inherent in the ingredients, so you wouldn't know the food was contaminated.

As to people mistaking a normal GI illness for food poisoning, I think that'd be hard to do. If you've ever had food poisoning, you will never, ever mistake a typical gastro-intestinal "bug" for it. I was so sick I went to the doctor, who confirmed it was food poisoning. I guess if you've never had it, you might think a bad GI bug was food poisoning. I think the onset varies with the specific organism involved.

if they banned you, i would have go TO the restaurant immediately. it's definitely NOT YOUR FAULT at all, so, banning you WHY?????????