Table 1. Symptoms, onset of symptoms and responsible microorganisms or toxin for the major foodborne illnesses.

Approximate onset time to symptoms	Predominant symptoms	Associated organism or toxin
1–7 h, mean 2–4 h	Nausea, vomiting, retching, diarrhea, abdominal pain, prostration	Staphylococcus aureus and its enterotoxins
8–16 h (2–4 h if emesis predominant)	Vomiting or diarrhea, depending on whether diarrheic or emetic toxin present; abdominal cramps; nausea	Bacillus cereus (emetic toxin)
12–48 h	Nausea, vomiting, watery non-bloody diarrhea, dehydration	Norovirus
2–36 h (mean 6–12 h)	Abdominal cramps, diarrhea, putrefactive diarrhea (Cl. perfringens), sometimes nausea and vomiting	Clostridium perfringens
6–96 h (usually 1–3 days)	Fever, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, headache	Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., E. coli
6 h to 5 days	Abdominal cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, malaise, nausea, headache, dehydration	Vibrio cholearae (O1 and non-O1), Vibrio parahaemolyticus
1–10 (median 3–4) days	Diarrhea (often bloody), abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, malaise, fever (uncommon with E. coli O157:H7)	Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, Campylobacter spp.
3–5 days	Fever, vomiting, watery non-inflammatory diarrhea	Rotavirus, Astrovirus, enteric Adenovirus
3–7 days	Fever, diarrhea, abdominal pain	Yersinia enterocolitica
1 to several weeks	Abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, headache, drowsiness, ulcers, variable—often asymptomatic	Entamoeda histolytica
3–6 months	Nervousness, insomnia, hunger pains, anorexia, weight loss, abdominal pain, sometimes gastroenteritis	Taenia saginata, Taenia solium
2 h to 6 days, usually 12–36 h	Vertigo, double or blurred vision, loss or light reflex, difficulty in swallowing, dry mouth, weakness, respiratory paralysis	Clostridium botulinum and its neurotoxins
4–28 days	Gastroenteritis, fever, oedema around eyes, perspiration, muscular pain, chills, prostration, laboured breathing	Trichinella spiralis
7–28 days	Malaise, headache, fever, fever, cough, nausea, vomiting, constipation, abdominal pain, chills, rose spots, bloody stools	Salmonella Tympi
10–13 days	Fever, headache, myalgia, rash	Toxoplasma gondii
Varying periods	Fever, chills, headache, arthalgia, prostration, malaise, swollen lymph nodes and other specific symptoms of disease in question	Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter jejuni

After: [5],[6].