Improper food storage, preparation, and hygiene can lead to food poisoning. Meat, leafy greens, and rice are some foods that you should be extra careful with while cooking because they often make people sick.
Food poisoning happens when people consume food that is contaminated with harmful bacteria, parasites, viruses or toxins.
It’s also called foodborne illness, and it can make you feel a lot of different ways, like having stomachaches, diarrhea, vomiting, feeling sick, and losing your appetite.
People who are pregnant, have young children, are old, or have long-term illnesses are more likely to get food poisoning.
Some foods are more likely to make you sick than others, especially if you store, prepare, or cook them wrong.
Raw and undercooked poultry such as chicken, duck and turkey has a high risk of causing food poisoning.
The main reason for this is that Campylobacter and Salmonella bacteria are often found in these birds’ guts and feathers.
These bacteria often get into fresh chicken meat when it is being killed, and they can live until it is cooked, at which point they die (1, 2).
In fact, studies from the UK, US, and Ireland discovered that 4%E2%80%9384% of raw chicken sold in supermarkets was contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria and 4%E2%80%935% was contaminated with Salmonella (3, 204, 205).
Campylobacter contamination rates were slightly lower in raw turkey meat, ranging from 4 to 3.8 percent (935 percent), while contamination rates for raw duck meat were 20 to 36 percent (6, 207, 208).
The good news is that these harmful bacteria can live on raw chicken, but they are killed off completely when the meat is cooked all the way through.
Make sure chicken is fully cooked, don’t wash raw meat, and keep it away from surfaces, cutting boards, utensils, and other foods that could be contaminated (9).
Bacon is a breakfast staple loved by many. The crispy fatty slices of pork bacon are hard to resist. However because it comes from an animal, bacon needs to be handled carefully to avoid foodborne illnesses like salmonella. So, can you get food poisoning from cooked bacon?
The short answer is yes, you can get food poisoning from cooked bacon if it’s not handled properly. Raw bacon can contain dangerous bacteria like salmonella, listeria, and E coli If the bacon is not cooked to a high enough temperature to kill these germs, they can survive and make you sick.
Undercooking bacon or eating bacon that has been contaminated after cooking are the main ways food poisoning can occur. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to cook, store, and reheat bacon safely and avoid getting sick.
How Food Poisoning Happens with Bacon
Food poisoning occurs when harmful germs multiply and release toxins in the food you eat. The most common causes of food poisoning from bacon are:
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Salmonella – This bacteria is commonly found in the intestines of pigs and can get onto the meat during slaughter. Eating undercooked bacon with salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12-72 hours after exposure.
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Listeria: Listeria monocytogenes is a bacteria that can get on food processing tools and live through refrigeration. It has symptoms like salmonella, but it can be more dangerous for pregnant women, babies, and older people.
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E. coli—Some types of Escherichia coli are harmful and make toxins that hurt the lining of the intestines and lead to bloody diarrhea. It comes from fecal contamination.
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Staphylococcus aureus – Staph bacteria produce toxins that cause violent vomiting within 1-6 hours of exposure. Bacon can harbor the bacteria if handled improperly after cooking.
Food-borne illnesses are common; the CDC says that they affect about 48 million Americans every year. Most cases are mild, but about 128,000 end up in the hospital and 3,000 end in death.
Can Pre-Cooked or Nitrate-Free Bacon Cause Food Poisoning?
Pre-cooked bacon sold at grocery stores has already been cooked before packaging to extend its shelf life. However, it is not a “ready-to-eat” product and must be cooked thoroughly before eating to kill any bacteria that may be present.
The same goes for nitrate-free or organic bacon – safety standards for handling are the same. Nitrates are preservatives added to many cured meats, including bacon, to prevent bacterial growth. So nitrate-free bacon may actually spoil faster. But preservatives do not replace proper cooking.
As long as you handle pre-cooked bacon properly and cook it thoroughly before eating, food poisoning risks are low. Never eat pre-cooked bacon straight out of the package.
How to Cook Bacon Safely
Cooking bacon to a high internal temperature is key for killing illness-causing germs. Follow these tips for safe preparation:
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Cook until crispy – Bacon should be cooked until stiff and browned for food safety. Raw bacon can still contain bacteria.
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Measure temperature – Use a food thermometer to check bacon reaches 145°F internally before removing from heat.
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Cook thoroughly – Turn bacon frequently and cook on both sides to heat evenly. Avoid cold spots.
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Avoid undercooked meat – Bacon that still looks pink or has soft spots can contain harmful germs. Cook more if needed.
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Cook in oven – Baking bacon in the oven allows the fat to drip away from the meat and promotes even cooking.
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Drain grease – Pour off excess grease during and after cooking to prevent grease splatters which spread bacteria.
Following proper cooking methods is important, but you also need to begin with fresh, unspoiled bacon. Inspect raw bacon before cooking for signs of spoilage like sliminess, stickiness, or an off smell. Discard any suspect bacon.
How to Store Bacon Safely
Proper storage is also key to prevent bacterial growth on bacon before or after it’s cooked. Here are some bacon safety tips:
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Refrigerate promptly – Fresh or cooked bacon should be refrigerated within 2 hours of purchase or preparation. Bacteria multiply rapidly at room temperature.
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Freeze for long-term – Raw bacon can be frozen for 1-2 months for longer storage. Thaw in the refrigerator before cooking frozen bacon.
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Avoid cross-contamination – Store raw bacon sealed and away from ready-to-eat foods. Disinfect surfaces it touched.
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Check for spoilage – Don’t use bacon that smells bad, is slimy, or shows other signs of spoilage like mold. When in doubt, throw it out.
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Follow “Use By” dates – For maximum safety and quality, cook or freeze bacon by the date on the package.
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Refrigerate leftovers – Cover cooked bacon leftovers and refrigerate for 3-4 days. Discard bacon that looks or smells bad.
Following the basic food safety rule of refrigerating perishable foods quickly prevents bacteria from growing to dangerous levels.
How to Reheat Bacon Safely
Cooked bacon leftovers should always be reheated to 165°F before eating to kill any bacteria that may have multiplied during storage. Here are some safe reheating tips:
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Use oven or skillet – Reheat small amounts of bacon in a skillet on the stove or bake strips in the oven.
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Microwave carefully – Bacon can dry out and cook unevenly in the microwave. Use half power and stir or flip midway.
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Avoid slow cookers – Slow cookers may not heat bacon hot enough to kill bacteria. It’s better to use other methods.
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Check temperature – Test temperature with a food thermometer to verify bacon reaches 165°F after reheating.
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Bring sauces to a boil – Reheat bacon in sauces like soups or pasta by bringing the liquid to a rolling boil.
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Don’t reheat more than once – Only reheat cooked bacon leftovers once for safety. Discard if not eaten after reheating.
Proper reheating ensures any bacteria present are killed before eating. Be extra careful when reheating bacon for those at higher risk of food poisoning, like pregnant women, young children, and the elderly.
Who is Most at Risk for Food Poisoning from Bacon?
While anyone can get sick from eating poorly handled bacon, some groups have higher odds of serious illness if exposed to foodborne pathogens. These vulnerable groups should take extra care with bacon safety:
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Pregnant women – Hormone changes suppress the immune system, raising risks from listeria and other germs.
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Young children – Their immune systems aren’t fully developed, making them more susceptible.
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Older adults – Weakened immunity in older adults makes it harder to fight infection.
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Those with chronic illnesses – Conditions like diabetes, cancer, and kidney disease carry higher risks.
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Those with compromised immunity – HIV, chemotherapy, steroids, and other conditions can impair immune defenses.
Vulnerable individuals should avoid uncooked or undercooked bacon and other risky foods like raw eggs, cookie dough, and unpasteurized milk. Using a food thermometer and following proper handling methods reduces risks.
What to Do if You Have Food Poisoning Symptoms After Eating Bacon
If you experience any signs of food poisoning like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, or body aches after eating bacon, stop eating it right away. Symptoms usually start within 1-3 days of eating contaminated food.
Here are some tips for dealing with potential food poisoning:
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Drink fluids – Stay hydrated and replace lost electrolytes with clear broth, water, or diluted sports drinks.
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See a doctor – Seek medical care if symptoms are severe or persist more than 1-2 days, especially if you see blood or are dehydrated.
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Take over-the-counter medicines – For relief, try medicines like Pepto-Bismol, Imodium, and Dramamine. Check with your doctor first.
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Avoid further contamination – Wash hands thoroughly after using the bathroom and before preparing food.
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Rest – Get adequate rest and sleep to allow your body to heal.
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Reintroduce foods slowly – Gradually add mild, bland foods back into your diet as symptoms improve.
While most cases of food poisoning resolve on their own, contact your doctor right away if you have severe bloody diarrhea, vomiting that prevents fluid intake, high fever, or other concerning symptoms. Rapid treatment can shorten the illness.
How to Prevent Food Poisoning from Bacon
Following proper cooking, storage, and handling practices can help prevent food poisoning from bacon and other meats. Here are some top food safety tips:
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Cook bacon thoroughly to 145°F. Use a food thermometer to verify temperature.
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Refrigerate fresh and cooked bacon within 2 hours of preparation.
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Check “Use By” dates and watch for signs of spoilage before cooking.
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Store raw bacon sealed away from other foods to avoid cross-contamination.
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Clean utensils, cutting boards, plates and countertops after preparing raw bacon.
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Always wash hands with soap and water before and after handling bacon.
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Reheat cooked bacon thoroughly to 165°F before eating.
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Take extra care preparing bacon for those at higher risk like pregnant women and young children.
Practicing diligent food safety when cooking and storing bacon reduces your risks of foodborne illnesses. While it takes some extra effort, it’s worth it to avoid the misery of food poisoning.
Bacon may be delicious, but it also carries a risk of foodborne illness if not handled properly. Raw bacon can harbor dangerous bacteria like salmonella, E. coli, and listeria. Undercooking bacon or allowing contamination after cooking are prime causes of food poisoning.
Thankfully, following safe cooking, storage, and reheating practices can destroy illness-causing germs. Use a food thermometer to ensure bacon reaches 145°F initially and 165°F upon reheating. Refrigerate bacon promptly after cooking and reheat only once.
While everyone is at risk when eating poorly handled foods, proper bacon safety is especially important for pregnant women, young children, the elderly, and those with chronic illnesses. With proper caution in the kitchen, you can continue to enjoy bacon safely and avoid the unpleasant consequences of foodborne pathogens!
Vegetables and Leafy Greens
Vegetables and leafy greens are a common source of food poisoning, especially when eaten raw.
More than one case of food poisoning has been linked to fruits and vegetables, especially lettuce, spinach, cabbage, celery, and tomatoes (10)
Vegetables and leafy greens can become contaminated with harmful bacteria, such as E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria. This can occur across various stages of the supply chain.
Contamination can occur from unclean water and dirty runoff, which can leach into the soil that fruits and vegetables are grown in (11).
It can also occur from dirty processing equipment and unhygienic food preparation practices. Leafy greens are especially risky because they are often consumed raw (12).
In fact, between 1973 and 2012, 85% of the food poisoning outbreaks in the US that were caused by leafy greens such as cabbage, kale, lettuce and spinach were traced back to food prepared in a restaurant or catering facility (13).
To minimize your risk, always wash salad leaves thoroughly before eating. Do not buy bags of salad mix that have mushy, spoiled leaves in them, and do not buy salads that have already been made but have been left out at room temperature.
Fish and Shellfish
Fish and shellfish are a common source of food poisoning.
If you don’t store fish at the right temperature, it’s likely to be contaminated with histamine, a poison made by bacteria in fish.
Histamine is not destroyed by normal cooking temperatures and results in a type of food poisoning known as scombroid poisoning. It causes a range of symptoms including nausea, wheezing and swelling of the face and tongue (14, 15).
Another type of food poisoning caused by contaminated fish is ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP). This occurs due to a toxin called ciguatoxin, which is mostly found in warm, tropical waters.
At least 10,000–50,000 people who live in or visit tropical areas get CFP each year, according to estimates. Like histamine, it is not destroyed by normal cooking temperatures and therefore the harmful toxins are present after cooking (16).
Shellfish such as clams, mussels, oysters and scallops also carry a risk of food poisoning. Algae that are consumed by shellfish produce many toxins, and these can build up in the flesh of shellfish, posing danger to humans when they consume the shellfish (17).
Store-bought shellfish are usually safe to eat. However, shellfish caught in areas that aren’t being watched could be unsafe because they could be contaminated by sewage, stormwater drains, and septic tanks.
To reduce your risk, purchase store-bought seafood and ensure you keep it chilled and refrigerated before cooking. Make sure fish is cooked through, and cook clams, mussels and oysters till the shells open. Throw away the shells that don’t open.
More than half of the people in the world eat rice every day. It is one of the oldest cereal grains. However, it is a high-risk food when it comes to food poisoning.
Bacillus cereus spores can get into raw rice. This is a bacteria that makes poisons that make food poisoning happen.
These spores can live in dry conditions. For example, they can survive in a package of uncooked rice in your pantry. They can also survive the cooking process (18).
If cooked rice is left standing at room temperature, these spores grow into bacteria that thrive and multiply in the warm, moist environment. The longer rice is left standing at room temperature, the more likely it will be unsafe to eat (19).
Serve the rice as soon as it’s done cooking and put any leftover rice in the fridge as soon as possible after cooking it. When reheating cooked rice, make sure it is steaming hot all the way through (19).
Deli meats including ham, bacon, salami and hot dogs can be a source of food poisoning.
Listeria and Staphylococcus aureus are two harmful bacteria that can get on them at different stages of processing and manufacturing.
Contamination can occur directly through contact with contaminated raw meat or by poor hygiene by deli staff, poor cleaning practices and cross-contamination from unclean equipment such as slicer blades (20, 21).
The reported rates of Listeria in sliced beef, turkey, chicken, ham and paté range from 0–6% (22, 23, 24, 25).
Of all the deaths caused by Listeria-contaminated deli meats, 83% were caused by deli meat sliced and packaged at deli counters, while 17% were caused by pre-packaged deli meat products (26).
It is important to remember that any meat can make you sick if it is not cooked or stored properly.
Hotdogs, minced meat, sausages and bacon should be cooked thoroughly and should be consumed immediately after being cooked. Sliced lunch meats should be stored in the refrigerator until they are ready to be eaten.
Pasteurization is the process of heating a liquid or food to kill harmful microorganisms.
Food manufacturers pasteurize dairy products including milk and cheese to make them safe to consume. Pasteurization kills harmful bacteria and parasites such as Brucella, Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella.
In fact, sales of unpasteurized milk and milk products are illegal in 20 US states (27).
Between 1993 and 2006, there were more than 1,500 cases of food poisoning, 202 hospitalizations and two deaths in the US resulting from drinking milk or eating cheese made with unpasteurized milk (28).
Also, milk that hasn’t been pasteurized is 150 times more likely to make you sick and 13 times more likely to send you to the hospital than pasteurized dairy products (29).
To minimize your risk of food poisoning from unpasteurized dairy, purchase pasteurized products only. Store all dairy at or under 40°F (5°C) and throw out dairy that is past its use-by date (30, 31).
Even though eggs are very healthy and can be used in many ways, eating them raw or not cooked enough can make you sick.
This is because eggs can carry Salmonella bacteria, which can contaminate both the eggshell and the inside of the egg (32).
In the 1970s and 1980s, contaminated eggs were a major source of Salmonella poisoning in the US. The good news is that since 1990, improvements have been made in egg processing and production, which has led to fewer Salmonella outbreaks (33).
In spite of this, each year Salmonella-contaminated eggs cause about 79,000 cases of food poisoning and 30 deaths, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (34).
To reduce your risk, do not consume eggs with a cracked or dirty shell. Where possible, choose pasteurized eggs in recipes that call for raw or lightly cooked eggs.
Some fruit products, like berries, melons, and fruit salads that are already made, have been linked to food poisoning outbreaks.
Fruits grown on the ground such as cantaloupe (rockmelon), watermelon and honeydew melon have a high risk of causing food poisoning due to Listeria bacteria, which can grow on the rind and spread to the flesh (35).
Between 1973 and 2011, there were 34 reported outbreaks of food poisoning associated with melons in the US. This resulted in 3,602 reported cases of illness, 322 hospitalizations and 46 deaths.
Cantaloupes accounted for 56% of the outbreaks, watermelons accounted for 38% and honeydew melons accounted for 6% (36).
Cantaloupe is a particularly high-risk fruit due to its rough, netted skin, which provides protection for Listeria and other bacteria. This makes it difficult to completely remove bacteria, even with cleaning (37).
Raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries, both fresh and frozen, can also make you sick because they contain viruses and bacteria that are bad for you, especially the hepatitis A virus.
The main causes of berry contamination include being grown in contaminated water, poor hygiene practices of berry pickers and cross-contamination with infected berries during processing (38).
Washing fruit before you eat it can reduce the risks, as can cooking it. If you’re eating melon, make sure to wash the rind. Eat fruit as soon as it’s cut or place it in the fridge. Avoid pre-packaged fruit salads that have not been chilled or stored in a fridge.
Any kind of raw sprouts, like alfalfa, sunflower, mung bean, and clover sprouts, are thought to be very likely to make you sick.
This is mainly due to the presence of bacteria including Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria.
Seeds require warm, moist and nutrient-rich conditions for the sprouts to grow. These conditions are ideal for the rapid growth of bacteria.
From 1998 to 2010, 33 outbreaks from seed and bean sprouts were documented in the US, and were reported to have affected 1,330 people (39).
In 2014, beansprouts contaminated with Salmonella bacteria caused food poisoning in 115 people, a quarter of whom were hospitalized (40).
The FDA advises that pregnant women avoid consuming any type of raw sprouts. This is because pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to the effects of harmful bacteria (41).
Fortunately, cooking sprouts helps kill any harmful microorganisms and reduces the risk of food poisoning.
Foods that are the most likely to give you food poisoning
FAQ
How long does food poisoning from bacon take to kick in?
How to know if cooked bacon is bad?
How long after eating undercooked bacon will I get sick?
Is it safe to eat cooked bacon left out overnight?
Can you get food poisoning from Bacon?
Even though bacon is salt-cured to help prevent soiling, it is still possible to get food poisoning from bacon. Eating undercooked bacon can cause illness, such as toxoplasmosis, trichinosis, and tapeworms. Some of the symptoms of bacon food poisoning can be nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. Take our food poisoning Quiz!
What happens if you eat bad bacon?
Eating bad bacon can lead to food poisoning. Indications include nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhea. These symptoms can take 1 – 2 days to manifest. Below is a look at what happens if you eat bad bacon and how to tell if bacon is bad before it is eaten.
How to avoid food poisoning if you eat spoiled bacon?
To minimize the risk of getting sick, pay attention to the expiration dates, be aware of the symptoms of spoiled bacon, and always opt for high-quality bacon from a trusted source. In case you experience nausea or any other signs of food poisoning after consuming raw meat, be sure to reach out to a healthcare professional right away.
What happens if you eat rotten Bacon?
Eating spoiled bacon can lead to foodborne illnesses, such as food poisoning. Symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps. If you suspect you’ve eaten rotten bacon, it’s important to seek medical attention if symptoms become severe or persist for more than 24 hours.