Food Poisoning
Discussion
Seems like I've picked up whitefish food poisoning after having sligtly undercooked and warm Haddock yesterday evening. Rang the doc and he suggested I get Buscopan to relieve the stomach cramps. Dose is 2 tabs every 4 hours - I'm not able to hold anything down for long, and even though I've only had a few small sips of water - was sick after an hour of taking the pills.
Does anyone know if I should wait for the 4 hours to be up or could I try again when 3 hours are over?
Cheers
Does anyone know if I should wait for the 4 hours to be up or could I try again when 3 hours are over?
Cheers
Just an update - it was actually take 4 a day rather than 2 every 4 hours so it was OK to take another dose. I'm nopw much better - though at the time I thought I was dying !
Fast forward to to-day when I returned to the source of the dodgy Haddock and after I'd confirmed I'd spoken to the doctor, the produce manager wanted a stool sample to send to their Head Office for them to test. Fortunately I haven't been since Tuesday morning and before the onset of the stomach cramps ( mainly because I haven't eaten anything). I've now contacted their Head Office and have been asked to return the packaging with fish flakes inside it.
Fast forward to to-day when I returned to the source of the dodgy Haddock and after I'd confirmed I'd spoken to the doctor, the produce manager wanted a stool sample to send to their Head Office for them to test. Fortunately I haven't been since Tuesday morning and before the onset of the stomach cramps ( mainly because I haven't eaten anything). I've now contacted their Head Office and have been asked to return the packaging with fish flakes inside it.
TOV!E said:
Why send it back if you say YOU under cooked it.??????????
I didn't undercook it as such - I followed the instructions on the foil pack. A certain supermarket has decided to start doing bake in foil bags with 'special sauce/butter' of your choice. Pierce the foil in a few places, place in the oven @ 190 deg C for 15 mins. That's exactly what I did.When I took it out, I noticed ( after a few mouthfuls) it wasn't hot enough and a quick knife in the middle of the loin showed it was still raw. I then transferred it to a plate and stuck a 'steamer' lid on top and nuked it in the microwave.
It was just a few mouthfuls that I had prior to the microwave that made me ill the following day.
That wasn't on the foil pack - I think they've only just introduced this 'cook in foil with free flavoured butter pats' on the fresh fish counter as a feature. I have to point out that I only had about 2 to 3 mouthfuls before I realised there was a likely problem and moved the fish to the microwave steamer to cook it properly.
Upshot was I returned the original package with fish flakes inside to the store this afternoon, it was couriered to their Quality Control dept at Head Office in a refrigerated box. So credit to them for taking my report seriously...and hopefully preventing a similar situation. It will be 2 weeks before I hear anything back from them but will update this thread when I do.
Upshot was I returned the original package with fish flakes inside to the store this afternoon, it was couriered to their Quality Control dept at Head Office in a refrigerated box. So credit to them for taking my report seriously...and hopefully preventing a similar situation. It will be 2 weeks before I hear anything back from them but will update this thread when I do.
Just had a phone call from them - they said there wasn't enough of a sample for the lab to investigate.
There were quite a few flakes and I would have thought some analysis could be done - however, the case is now closed. Lessons learnt for the future - Don't buy fish on a Monday and wash all fish myself.
There were quite a few flakes and I would have thought some analysis could be done - however, the case is now closed. Lessons learnt for the future - Don't buy fish on a Monday and wash all fish myself.condor said:
Just had a phone call from them - they said there wasn't enough of a sample for the lab to investigate.
They are almost certainly BS'ing you - they could swab the inside of the packaging and transfer the swabs on agar plates, incubate them for 24 hours and tell you what is there. Alternatively, they could homogenise the leftover flakes (only a tiny amount is needed) and transfer them into a media broth, which could be then be spread onto agar media and incubated for 24 hours, and the various colonies that appeared (if any) could be further sub-cultured and identified.For them to come back less than 24 hours later and say there was "not enough sample" sounds very dodgy to me. Almost as if they don't want to admit fault and are covering it up!
Mastodon2 said:
condor said:
Just had a phone call from them - they said there wasn't enough of a sample for the lab to investigate.
They are almost certainly BS'ing you - they could swab the inside of the packaging and transfer the swabs on agar plates, incubate them for 24 hours and tell you what is there. Alternatively, they could homogenise the leftover flakes (only a tiny amount is needed) and transfer them into a media broth, which could be then be spread onto agar media and incubated for 24 hours, and the various colonies that appeared (if any) could be further sub-cultured and identified.For them to come back less than 24 hours later and say there was "not enough sample" sounds very dodgy to me. Almost as if they don't want to admit fault and are covering it up!
I tend to agree with you - I thought there was plenty enough fish flakes to take samples from. Of course they don't want bad publicity, but I suspect they just dumped it in the rubbish bin without even checking it. I even doubt it was couriered to HO - there was probably a code no. that meant ring me back when she's gone. It did seem a bit pantomime-ish and when I asked for a receipt number for the fish sample was told on three occassions that they didn't give them.
Poor state of affairs, hopefully there won't be a next time - but if there is, will be straight to the trading standards office for me.
Poor state of affairs, hopefully there won't be a next time - but if there is, will be straight to the trading standards office for me.
Shaw Tarse said:
Maybe thank them for looking into the matter, apologise that there wasn't enough sample for them to investigate, but you also sent a sample to the local environmental health dept!
I'm too trusting for my own good - although I could visit Trading Standards Monday with an account of what happenned.condor said:
Lessons learnt for the future - Don't buy fish on a Monday and wash all fish myself.
Washing fish isn't going to make much difference - to actually remove enough bacteria to make any difference you'd have to seriously scrub the fish or use somewhat toxic chemicals (think bleach).Just thoroughly cooking it is sufficient - I'd suggest ignoring the cook in bag thing, just cook it properly as you would anything else. Always treat instructions on the bag as guidelines, I normally find they're somewhat under on cooking times.
Also did you cook from the fridge or let it come up to room temperature first? It's possible their times are for room temperature, but most people cook from chilled which would increase cooking time significantly.
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