Food poisoning from airline meal

[Janie]

I have absolutely the worst luck of anyone I know with airplane food. I flew home from Paris on Friday and am pretty certain that I got food poisoning from the meal served on the plane. This is the second time on this airline that I've gotten sick. I feel a little silly about complaining because, of course, there is no way to prove whether the airplane meal is really to blame. What would you do?

 

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

I would call the airline. The only way to know is if others also got sick.
Liz

 

[ricoba]

I would call the airline. The only way to know is if others also got sick.
Liz

I think this is a good plan.

 

[LisaRex]

So sorry about getting sick. I agree that you should contact the airline and let them know as communication by several individuals is the only way for them to establish a common source. FYI, food poisoning usually takes a few hours to 2 days to manifest itself so it's most likely not your most recent meal that caused it.

After trying to choke down one too many slimy turkey wraps, I now bring my own food on board in a lunch sized soft-sided cooler. In lieu of ice, I use Thermos sealed ice packs and have had no issues getting through customs and TSA. You can either make stuff ahead of time or buy sandwiches freshly made at the airport delis.

Besides making for a better lunch, I re-use the the cooler and ice packs all week to haul lunch and drinks to the beach,etc. And they're really cute, too!

http://www.thermos.com/Product_detail.aspx?CatCode=THER&SubcategoryID=16&ProductID=478

http://www.thermos.com/Product_detail.aspx?CatCode=COOL&SubcategoryID=51&ProductID=755

http://www.thermos.com/Product_detail.aspx?CatCode=COOL&SubcategoryID=51&ProductID=771

 

[Jestjoan]

They are really snazzy. I just wish I didn't have so many old boring coolers.

YES, I had food poisoning from airline food........

 

[Carolinian]

Some airlines may also give you some miles as compensation or even a voucher.

You might post on the board of the airline in question at www.flyertalk.com to ask.

BTW, which airline was it?

 

[Janie]

Thanks all: It was American Airlines. I spent some time on hold earlier today and then gave up and went to their website: they do have a section which tells you how to lodge a complaint or concern via email, so that is what I did. I requested a reply, so we'll see what happens.

These were classic food poisoning symptoms, starting about 5 hours after eating the lunch. I will spare you all the details :ignore:

(It's also possible that it could have been the dinner the night before.)

 

[AwayWeGo]

El Barfo After Flying Salt Lake City To Minneapolis . . .

. . . via Western Airlines.

Western has been defunct or absorbed into another airline for ever so long, so you know that incident was from way back.

No problems like that before or since.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[dougp26364]

I have absolutely the worst luck of anyone I know with airplane food. I flew home from Paris on Friday and am pretty certain that I got food poisoning from the meal served on the plane. This is the second time on this airline that I've gotten sick. I feel a little silly about complaining because, of course, there is no way to prove whether the airplane meal is really to blame. What would you do?

I'd stop eating airline food.

I'm never to certain about the quality of the people that prepar the food, how it's stored or how it's served. On our last flight coming home from Oahu, my wife refused to get one of the Quizno's sandwiches available in the terminal to take with her. Instead, she took a chance on United's food onboard. Expensive and she got sick.

Not that you can't get sick from eating fast food from a franchise in a terminal but, we've had much better luck there than we've ever had with the food served by the airlines. Maybe next time she'll listen to me.

 

[Jestjoan]

Right

Probably just the way DH listens to me.......

 

[DeniseM]

In lieu of ice, I use Thermos sealed ice packs and have had no issues getting through customs and TSA.

You may have been successful with this, but it is a violation of TSA rules. An ice pack is by definition a liquid in a larger than 3 oz. container. You will want to have a back up plan, in case this doesn't work next time.

 

[rosebud5]

Airline food has really gotten bad over the last 10 years. i would stick to the type of food that shouldn't make you sick, e.g. green salad, bread/butter, cookies, pretzels. Maybe you just had some bad luck or maybe the flight made you feel sick. In any event, i always bring a snack on a long flight. If I was coming back from Paris, I think I would bring one of those fantastic baguettes with ham and cheese and stick it into my backpack. Hmmm. getting hungry thinking about it.

 

[Janie]

Yep, I'm done with airline food: in the future I'll bring my own.

I've gotten food poisoning twice now. I've also:

Had to eat my dinner with a knife only, because they ran out of silverware.

Gone hungry twice, because they ran out of food before they got to me.

On the positive side, I fly usually four or five times per year, and I've never lost a bag Fingers crossed.

 

[AwayWeGo]

What Kind Of Bag ?

I've never lost a bag

Carry-on bag ?

Or barf bag ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[hibbeln]

Pay attention if this happens on other long haul/high altitude flights (i.e., transatlantic). I got sick twice. The first time I thought it was food poisoning (picked up in Morocco before we left). The second time I thought "HUH?!" Finally realized that it was a problem with the changes in altitude. Symptoms would start to hit about an hour before arrival and I'd be barfing my guts up before we started our final descent. Miserable! I thrashed it out online here. I also always have problems scuba diving (I get the barfy's every time I come back to the surface). But I have flown a bajillion times before this started happening.
The other mystery in the equation was that it never occurred going TO Europe, only coming home. I finally figured it out this summer when we went up to the top of the Zugspitze mountain in Germany, then made a rapid descent via cablecar and both my husband and I felt sick/headachey/barfy. What we had in common that the others didn't was that we'd both had carbonated beverages (and we're in our early 40's).
So that was the final piece of the puzzle. When I fly TO Europe we take on overnight flight and I sleep the whole way. No soda on the plane! Coming home I sit up and watch movies and drink pop the whole way.....and then the barfing ensues!
This last trip home from Germany I had nothing but hot tea and water the whole way home and was FINALLY fine.
So I think the problem is carbonation in my tummy when we change altitude. But boy oh boy did I have a violent reaction (throwing up 10+ times getting through immigration/customs, barfing in the car all the way home...).

 

[davidvel]

i would stick to the type of food that shouldn't make you sick, e.g. green salad, bread/butter, cookies, pretzels.

The operative word being "shouldn't." Actually no food should make you sick, unless your allergic I guess...

Recall that one of the biggest food-poisingn outbreaks involved spinach: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12536902/

Lettuce and other vegetables are also often contaminated with e-coli. (No, you do not want to know or ask how e-coli gets into vegetables.)