Proving Liability In Food Poisoning Cases

Imagine that you eat a meal, and afterwards you start to feel ill. But not just a normal ill. More like an illness that tells you that something is very wrong. Perhaps you feel sicker than you have in recent memory. Did you just suddenly get sick? Probably not—more likely you were a victim of food poisoning.

How Food Poisoning Happens

Food poisoning can happen in any number of ways. Sometimes it happens from poor food handling. Cross contamination between food products, or improper storage temperatures, can allow substances to grow, which will make us very sick.

Other times, the core ingredients in our foods themselves are contaminated from the original plant or manufacturer that they came from. Numerous recalls are made every year, where companies admit that products they put on grocery store shelves are contaminated.

Who is Liable?

In either scenario, a number of entities can be liable, from the manufacturer to the restaurant or food preparer. Who is liable, often depends on the circumstances.

Of course, in mass produced items, like those in a grocery store, if many people are sickened, the problem is probably coming from the manufacturer. Research may show that you aren’t the only one to suffer the symptoms that you did.

If improper handling or storage is the problem, that may not be as readily obvious. Victims can look to a restaurant’s health code inspections, to look for violations. While that doesn’t absolutely mean that the food that you ate on a given day was contaminated, it is evidence that the restaurant may be haphazardly handling food products.

Saving the Evidence

Often we aren’t aware that we have been poisoned, until after our meal. That means we don’t always know to save or preserve the food that we feel may have sickened us.

Where possible, you shouldn’t throw out any food that you think may have made you ill, but even if you didn’t know and did throw it out (or ate it all), you still can make a claim for food poisoning.

Injuries and Proof of Causation

The injuries from food poisoning can run the gamut, from just a very uncomfortable few hours, to serious, long term and life threatening illnesses. Some people have even lost limbs, because of infection caused by food poisoning.

If you do feel that you have been made ill because of food poisoning, it is best to get medical treatment as quickly as possible. Aside from the obvious medical and health reasons, the closer in proximity you can demonstrate your illness was to ingesting whatever food product you ate, the easier time you will have convincing a jury that your illness was caused by food poisoning, and that your illness isn’t just a random sickness.

Contact our Rhode Island injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700 today if you feel you may have been made ill or injured because of contaminated food, or food poisoning.

Source:

independent.co.uk/news/health/vibrio-vulnificus-bacteria-california-amputation-b2414250.html