Food Poisoning

Food poisoning can be caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated by bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemicals.  

Most cases of food poisoning are mild and last only a few days. However, some cases can be more severe, especially in children, pregnant women, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.  

Symptoms  

• Stomach pain or cramps  
• Diarrhea 
• Nausea 
• Vomiting 
• Fever 
• Headache 

Simple ways to prevent food poisoning include:  

• Carefully examining the food you put in your shopping cart  
• Washing your hands and forearms with soap before and after handling food  
• Using bandages and disposable gloves to cover any injuries while handling food 
• Properly storing food at the recommended safe temperatures 
• Chilling, reheating and thawing food correctly
• Carefully sorting through the food still in your refrigerator and freezer after a power outage  

Contamination is the result of direct contact between raw food and food that is cooked or ready to eat.  

The best way to avoid contaminating the food you prepare is to closely follow the hygiene and cleaning recommendations. 

Only proper cooking can prevent food contamination or reduce it to safe levels. Cooking kills most disease-causing bacteria.  

There are well-known health risks associated with eating ground meat. When preparing ground meat, certain recommendations should be followed.  

Also:  

• Do not use cracked or broken eggs. They may be contaminated by disease-causing bacteria, including salmonella.  
• Discard cans that are bulging, dented, leaking or giving off an abnormal smell. 

Cross-contamination 

Cross-contamination occurs when cooked or ready-to-eat foods come into contact with utensils, work surfaces or hands that have touched raw food.  

To avoid cross-contamination:  

• Always separate raw food from food that is cooked or ready to eat. For example, do not put lettuce (a ready-to-eat food) on a work surface that was used to handle raw food unless the surface has been carefully washed and sanitized. 
• If possible, use one cutting board for vegetables and another for raw meat.  
• Prepare cooked or ready-to-eat food (which is less likely to be contaminated) before raw food (which poses a higher risk). 
• Wash your hands often with soap.  
• If you are making raclette or fondue, avoid putting raw food, such as fondue meat or chicken, on your plate. They could contaminate the other food on your plate. It is best to use different utensils to handle raw and cooked meat.

More caution is needed when preparing, cooking or eating certain foods to avoid food poisoning. 

Special care is required for these foods: 

• Ground meat 
• Turkey and holiday meals 
• Frozen chicken products 
• Liver and other offal  
• Tartare, sushi and other raw dishes 
• Raw oysters
• Wild game meat
• Fiddleheads
• Wild and domestic mushrooms

Also exercise caution with home-canned foods and lunch boxes. 

Drinking raw milk

Drinking raw or unpasteurized milk increases your risk of serious food poisoning. This is because the milk has not been treated with heat to eliminate harmful microorganisms.

It is illegal to sell unpasteurized milk and cream in Québec and Canada.

Be careful to only consume dairy products prepared by establishments that are licensed to process them. The Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation issues dairy processing plant operation permits  (French only).

For more information, visit Health Canada’s web page on Raw or unpasteurized milk .

The government monitors food products consumed in Québec to ensure food safety.  

Read the current monitoring plans and reports (French only):  

Contaminants in food products 

Plan de surveillance des contaminants dans les produits alimentaires vendus au Québec – Bilan 2011-2016 (PDF 1.93 Mb): Analyses performed to determine the effectiveness of measures for ensuring compliance with chemical and microbiological contamination regulations.  

Plan de surveillance des contaminants dans les produits alimentaires vendus au Québec – Bilan sommaire de gestion 2011-2016 : Summarized results of chemical and microbiological tests conducted on an extensive sample of food from 2011 to 2016 to ensure food quality and safety in Québec.

Fresh fruits and vegetables 

Plan de surveillance des résidus de pesticides dans les fruits et légumes frais issus de la culture conventionnelle vendus au Québec 2019-2020 (PDF 605 Kb): Results of the samples taken between April 2019 and March 2020. 

Plan de surveillance des résidus de pesticides dans les fruits et légumes frais issus de la culture conventionnelle vendus au Québec – Sommaire des résultats 2018-2019 : Results of the samples taken between April 2018 and March 2019.

Plan de surveillance des résidus de pesticides dans les fruits et légumes frais issus de la culture conventionnelle vendus au Québec – Sommaire des résultats 2017-2018 : Results of the samples taken between May 2017 and March 2018.

Plan de surveillance des résidus de pesticides dans les fruits et légumes frais issus de la production biologique vendus au Québec 2016-2020 (PDF 551 Kb): Results summary.