There are three main types of contaminants that can occur: physical, chemical, and biological. Epidemiologists tend to focus on the last one. We are not biased toward any of them, we welcome reports from anything that can harm consumers. With chemical contamination the onset can be within minutes, and even with the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (commonly just called Staph) onset can be as soon as 1 hour.

Further, in the spirit of our partnership with public health - attribution - while beneficial - is not the only benefit from our site. Simply knowing that you have a cluster of people in your county exhibiting norovirus like symptoms is important, especially when you have their contact information.

It gives public health the opportunity to follow up and conduct surveys including a food history, to try and determine attribution, but it also allows education, and prevention. Many people don't realize that if you have norovirus, you can be contagious for up to three days after recovery. So if you are a food worker, or work in a hospital, or daycare this point is critical to communicate to prevent further spreading, especially given how virulent norovirus is.

Besides all that - we have detected outbreaks of cases with longer incubation periods such as E. coli, so while some amount of misattribution is real it doesn't preclude us from achieving positive outcomes.

Thanks