— Explanation —
I would like to talk about Salmonella in the next few posts. I wonder why? Well, I recently discovered that the search volume, or monthly searches, for “salmonella” is nine times higher than for “food poisoning.” The more you know.
Of the 165,000 monthly Google searches related to Salmonella, one of the most frequently asked questions is, “Do Salmonella symptoms appear quickly?” That’s a question worth considering.
I would like to introduce you to the keyword “incubation period” in my world of food safety. The incubation period is the amount of time it takes for a person to become sick (that is, develop symptoms) after ingesting contaminated food. Different pathogens have different incubation periods.
For Salmonella, the incubation period is usually 12 to 36 hours, but can be as short as 6 hours and as long as 1 to 2 weeks. This relatively short incubation period is in contrast to the highly variable incubation period of another bacterium, Listeria monocytogenes, ranging from 3 to 70 days. That’s why I often advise my clients that the cause of their illness may not be the last thing they ate before symptoms appeared. Unless it’s staph food poisoning, it’s most likely something you ingested more than 12 hours ago, or even a few days ago.
To help you better understand the incubation period, we have created a handy table. If its helpful then im happy.
Pathogen | Bacteria, virus, or parasite? | typical incubation period |
Botulism (Clostridium botulinum) | bacteria | 12-36 hours |
campylobacter | bacteria | 2-5 days |
Cyclospora | parasite | ~1 week |
Clostridium perfringens | bacteria | 6-24 hours |
Escherichia coli (E. coli) | bacteria | 3-4 days |
hepatitis A | virus | 2-4 weeks |
listeria monocytogenes | bacteria | 3-70 days |
norovirus | virus | 12-48 hours |
Salmonella | bacteria | 12-36 hours |
Staphylococcus ruber | bacteria | 1-2 days |
Staphylococcus aureus | bacteria | 30 minutes to 6 hours |
Vibrio genus | bacteria | 1-3 days |
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