Have you taken ill after food consumption in airport lounges?

[Foreigner]

I had. After eating at VA SYD lounge last Sunday. I threw up in the airplane (lavatory) and again at my hotel. Things turned better after 24 hours though.




Sent from AFF Mobile Edition

 

[mannej]

Without dismissing the lounge food, food poisoning can have a much larger incubation period than a couple of hours. It really could have been anything that you may have eaten within the couple of days prior to the flight if indeed it was food related.

 

[yohy?!]

No..A few hangovers though

 

[bryanjones]

No..A few hangovers though

I'm suprised we dont have a "hangover report" section on this site Or is that the champagne advice thread!

 

[juddles]

Without dismissing the lounge food, food poisoning can have a much larger incubation period than a couple of hours. It really could have been anything that you may have eaten within the couple of days prior to the flight if indeed it was food related.

Mannej, I suspect you are not quite correct there. My understanding of food poisoning is that it hits you within 2 - 12 hrs in almost all varieties of the ailment. I am unaware of any that take longer than 24 hrs.

 

[Chimpy]

Mannej, I suspect you are not quite correct there. My understanding of food poisoning is that it hits you within 2 - 12 hrs in almost all varieties of the ailment. I am unaware of any that take longer than 24 hrs.

From the NSW food authority website: "Symptoms usually take between a few hours to a few days to begin and may last for a few days, depending on the type of pathogen."
Food poisoning | NSW Food Authority

 

[Foreigner]

Similar info found in this WA weblink:

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r...pwv9cdbwX3aVELw&bvm=bv.72197243,d.dGc&cad=rja

The info in table format is easier to comprehend.

 

[mannej]

Mannej, I suspect you are not quite correct there. My understanding of food poisoning is that it hits you within 2 - 12 hrs in almost all varieties of the ailment. I am unaware of any that take longer than 24 hrs.

I think you may want to rephrase that. Food poisoning can hit anywhere between a couple of hours to a couple of days. I've found out the hard way.

 

[badseed]

I have. Ate at the QF J lounge at LAX on December 22nd 2012.

A couple of hours later, just as QF94 lifted off I started feeling acute stomach pains, which was the beginning of 15 horrible hours. Not the greatest first A380 flight. In hindsight I'm thankful my upgrade to J wasn't successful.

Threw up a good ~ 10 times. Spent hours in the toilets, including in moderate turbulence. Couldn't eat anything, and couldn't watch the IFE.

Thankfully my partner convinced the lead FA not to recommend a divert to HNL as I just wanted to get home. Got thoroughly inspected by the Quarantine doc on arrival in MEL.

Reported it to QF and was politely told that they'd investigate and heard nothing more.

But the in-flight QF staff were excellent, and helped make the best of an uncomfortable situation.

 

[gaz0303]

If we take an epidemiological view of lounge food poisonings, couldn't we safely assume that more than 1 passenger per flight would 'go down'? Especially if a QF lounge was the culprit prior to a QF flight. The other cause could be individual behaviour in the lounge, rather than the food itself.

 

[markis10]

If we take an epidemiological view of lounge food poisonings, couldn't we safely assume that more than 1 passenger per flight would 'go down'? Especially if a QF lounge was the culprit prior to a QF flight. The other cause could be individual behaviour in the lounge, rather than the food itself.

Correct, unless you get a specimen for testing or its an en-mass event, often the wrong culprit gets blamed.

 

[JohnK]

I am certain I had food poisoning after eating tuna baguette in SYD T2 Qantas lounge ~6-7 years ago.

I had scombroid poisoining. I used the lounge as arrivals access for ~30 minutes. I started feeling nauseous in the taxi on the way home. When I got home I started having abdominal pains and had to lie down. Not long after and I was violently ill vomiting.

Luckily I felt better within 24 hours but that is not something I want to go through again.

Sent feedback to Qantas but apparently no one else complained but that in itself doesn't mean anything.

I try not to eat tuna in lounges. Even tuna sandwiches.

 

[elbarto]

Yes. My partner and I had an awful experience after eating some dodgy satay sticks (most likely culprit, they didn't taste quite right) in the SIN EK lounge earlier this year. Lets just say, the galley of a three week old A380 got christened. The crew were good about it though.

 

[juddles]

From the NSW food authority website: "Symptoms usually take between a few hours to a few days to begin and may last for a few days, depending on the type of pathogen."
Food poisoning | NSW Food Authority

Yes, there are illnesses that have similar symptoms (vomiting, upset tummy, etc) that can even take years to develop. But for straightforward eat-lounge-food-puke-on-plane scenarios, I suspect that most people have a fairly correct suspicion of the lounge food (ie their correlation between the food in the lounge and their illness within hours).

 

[mannej]

Yes, there are illnesses that have similar symptoms (vomiting, upset tummy, etc) that can even take years to develop. But for straightforward eat-lounge-food-puke-on-plane scenarios, I suspect that most people have a fairly correct suspicion of the lounge food (ie their correlation between the food in the lounge and their illness within hours).

Strictly speaking, that isn't correct. Hence why you will never see any place take responsibility for food poisoning unless the claimant has proof.

 

[Cynicor]

Have to side with Mannej here. One of the amazing things about gastro/"food poisoning" is my patients will ways be able to pinpoint the one time they ate out or at somewhere different in the last 2 weeks, as opposed to blaming their own dodgy leftovers/inability to safely reheat/poor cooking.

Your typical gastro bugs (rota, noro, salmonella, e. coli, shigella, campylobacter etc) can take from a couple of hours to days to incubate. It will partly depend on viral/bacterial load too. Bottom line, most people who blame the lounge food for a gastro are likely wrong, or vomiting/unwell for another reason.