A case-control study of food poisoning seen at an accident and emergency department

We investigated the hypothesis that sporadic food poisoning is a result of the consumption of food cooked or prepared outside the home. We did a case-control study, set in an urban emergency department, to find out the odds ratios for the risk of food poisoning associated with various patterns of consumption. We found that recent eating out (exposure on the day of or day before presentation) was associated with an odds ratio of 2·41 (95% CI 1·29–4·50) for presenting with food poisoning.