How long should food poisoning last?
Most food poisoning settles in a few days and nearly all of it within a week. The job during it is fluids, not food: oral rehydration salts beat water alone, taken in small frequent sips.
Eat blandly when appetite returns; the gut heals faster with gentle use than with fasting.
Get medical help for blood in stool, high fever, signs of dehydration like dizziness and scant dark urine, symptoms beyond three days, or any severe case in the very young, very old, pregnant or immune-suppressed.
Source: NHS, food poisoning
How long it usually lasts, by cause
| Result | In short | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Starts within 1 to 6 hours | Toxin, over in a day | Staph or Bacillus cereus, the classic reheated rice or cream cake. Violent vomiting, then done within 12 to 24 hours. |
| Starts within 12 to 48 hours | Norovirus, 1 to 3 days | The one that runs through a household. Vomiting and watery diarrhea, better in two or three days. |
| Starts within 1 to 3 days | Bacterial, 3 to 7 days | Salmonella, campylobacter and similar. Cramps and diarrhea that can last a week, sometimes with fever. |
| Still going past 7 days | Get it looked at | Beyond a week the odds shift toward a parasite such as giardia, or something that was never food poisoning. |
| Bloody stool, fever over 102F, no urine, or severe pain | Do not wait | These do not belong to the timeline. Seek care the same day whichever day of the illness it is. |
Timelines are typical, not promised. The red flags below the table override the clock at any point. Check it against the guidelines.
Try the symptom diary10 seconds a day, free, nothing to installA reaction is a pair: what you ate and how long after. Written down for two weeks, the pair usually names itself.
Look up another result
A result is rarely the only one on the page. Each of these gives the bands, in both unit systems, and what happens next.
- Albumin to creatinine ratio6 bands
- What the coating looks like, and what it usually is6 bands
- What the discharge looks like, and what it usually is6 bands
- What the evidence shows, by method6 bands
- What the node itself tells you9 bands
- What to carry, and what each one has to say7 bands
- Where to feel, and what each area drains6 bands
- Where you are, and what reverses it6 bands
- Where your reading sits7 bands
- White cell count5 bands
- Why claims get denied, and the move for each7 bands
- Why they happen, and which ones matter6 bands
- Your resting pulse, counted sitting quietly6 bands
- Your training zones by age, in beats per minute8 bands
Answered by the AskDoc Medical Team · Medically reviewed under our Medical Director, MBBS · How we review
For vomiting or diarrhea
Rehydration salts replace fluid better than water or sports drinks. Keep a few sachets at home; nobody wants to shop for them while sick.
Buying through this link supports the free library with a small commission. It never changes a pick.
A question about your own situation?
One question, answered personally by a doctor in writing within 24 hours.
People also ask
Health education, not medical advice.