Food poisoning sucks. What to look out for? 

If you have been unlucky enough to Suffer from food poisoning, you know that there's few things less enjoyable. What can make it even worse is if you do it to yourself. 

According to msnbc.com,
‘About 1 in 6 Americans get sick from foodborne illness every year, according to the CDC. Of those 48 million people, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die’ 

Looking at data from the CDC can be eye opening when you consider the top 10 most likely locations to get food poisoning. Let’s look at the top five. 

Using statistics from 2009 through 2021 banquet facilities ranked number 5 in the likelihood of getting food poisoning. Number 4 would be catering services. 19,981 reports. Of illness. Of those reported, 378 did have to go to the hospital for treatment. 

Number 3 on the list, fast food restaurants with 14,867 reported cases of illness. And 1,431 trips to the hospital.  

Number 2 is my personal favorite, personal homes. Yes, we do it to ourselves, and relatively often with 18,761 cases of illness. This resulted in 2,655 trips to the hospital. 

I know it sounds silly to say this, but food is not forever. Just because you put it in Tupperware and stick it in the refrigerator. Even freezing leftovers is not foolproof. 

Finally, I was kind of surprised by this one. The number one cause of food poisoning in the United States during that time period, sit down restaurants. 50,737 reports of illness and 2,184 trips to the hospital. 

The 10 most common places people get food poisoning, according to CDC data (msn.com)
Burden of Foodborne Illness: Findings | Estimates of Foodborne Illness | CDC
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E. coli outbreak associated with Wendy’s restaurants has now sickened 97 people in 6 states | CNN