How Much Compensation For Food Poisoning?

Have you been harmed by negligently prepared food? Are you wondering how much compensation for food poisoning you could receive if you were to make a successful claim? We understand that making a personal injury claim can seem complicated, but it doesn’t have to be.

In this guide, we’ll aim to explain everything you need to know about making a food poisoning compensation claim. We’ll start by talking about compensation, including what it could be made up of and how it may be calculated. Then, we’ll answer some commonly asked questions about food poisoning claims, from when you could make a claim to how to get started.

Our team are here to help. We hope that our guide will answer your questions, but if you’re still looking for information, you can speak to one of our expert advisors by:

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A man holds his stomache in pain after he suffered food poisoning from a meat pie

Select a Section

How Much Compensation For Food Poisoning
Am I Eligible To Make A Food Poisoning Claim?
Legal Responsibilities Of Food Providers Under UK Law
Common Causes Of Food Poisoning
How To File A Food Poisoning Compensation Claim
How Our Panel Of Solicitors Can Help You Claim
More Information

How Much Compensation For Food Poisoning

How much compensation for food poisoning you could receive will depend on the factors of your case. According to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), you could get anywhere up to £183,190 for serious bowel injuries, which can be caused by food poisoning. The JCG is used to help professionals calculate how much compensation you could get for your pain and suffering, which is also referred to as general damages.

Food poisoning can cause a range of injuries, from psychological damage like anxiety all the way up to brain injuries caused by botulism, a rare but serious kind of foodborne illness, and these would both be covered under general damages.

However, the figures provided in the JCG aren’t guaranteed, and they’re only used as guidelines. We’ll talk a bit more about what factors can affect your compensation in the next section, but for now, let’s take a look at some other JCG brackets.

Please note that the amounts in this table aren’t guaranteed, and the first entry isn’t from the JCG.

Injury	Compensation	Notes
Multiple severe injuries and special damages	Up to £250,000+	A figurative payout containing general damages for multiple severe injuries, with special damages covering financial losses like lost earnings and the cost of prescriptions.
Bowel Injuries b)	Up to £183,190	Total loss of natural bowel functions causing a dependence on a colostomy bag, with the award in this bracket depending on age.
Bowel Injuries d)	£54,420 to £85,100	Impairment of function causing a temporary colostomy bag and a change or restriction in diet.
Non-Traumatic Injuries To The Digestive System (i)	£46,900 to £64,070	This bracket covers cases of severe toxicosis, causing acute pain, diarrhoea, and hospital admission ranging from days to week.
Non-Traumatic Injuries To The Digestive System (ii)	£11,640 to £23,430	Short-lived food poisoning with serious symptoms falls under this bracket, with symptoms similar to the bracket above, but fading over two to four weeks and leaving some remaining discomfort and disturbance for over a few years,
Non-Traumatic Injuries To The Digestive System (iii)	£4,820 to £11,640	Food poisoning that causes significant discomfort, fatigue, altered bowel functions and stomach cramps, with a need for hospital admission that lasts for a few days.
Non-Traumatic Injuries To The Digestive System (iv)	£1,110 to £4,820	Cramps, diarrhoea and varying degrees of pain causing some disability that lasts for a few days to a few weeks.

How Food Poisoning Compensation Is Calculated

How food poisoning compensation is calculated is affected by a number of factors, and the figures provided by the JCG only go so far. When your payout is being negotiated, professionals can take into account things like:

How much evidence you have, and how strong it is
The severity of your illness or injuries
Whether your illness caused multiple injuries, e.g bowel injuries and brain damage
How your illness has affected your day-to-day life
Whether or not the food poisoning caused financial losses

Special Damages

Special damages is compensation for the financial losses caused by your food poisoning. For example, if you were admitted to hospital because of your illness, this could mean you’re unable to work for a number of weeks. Special damages could cover any lost wages this causes, as well as the cost of:

Private healthcare treatments
Childcare
Mobility aids
Travel costs
Prescriptions

If you want to claim compensation under this heading, you need to have evidence of your losses. To prove that you’ve suffered financially, you can use things like bank statements, receipts, invoices, and prescriptions.

Estimate Your Payout With Our Compensation Calculator

If you’d like a broad view of what your payout could look like, you can take a look at our compensation calculator. This uses figures from the JCG in conjunction with information specific to your case, like your financial losses and how long ago the incident happened.

Read on to find out if you could be eligible to make a food poisoning claim, or contact our team today to get started.

Am I Eligible To Make A Food Poisoning Claim?

You’re eligible to make a food poisoning claim if you can prove that negligence occurred. A lot of people have a passing understanding of what negligence is, but the definition under tort law is a bit more specific.

In personal injury law, negligence occurs when:

Someone owes you a duty of care, which means they’re legally responsible for your health and safety
They breach this duty
You suffer harm because of this

If you can prove that all three of these things happened, then you could be eligible to claim compensation for food poisoning. Keep reading to find out when you could be owed a duty of care, or contact our team today to find out how much compensation for food poisoning you could receive.

Legal Responsibilities Of Food Providers Under UK Law

Under UK law, businesses that deal with food owe you a duty of care. This can include anyone who sells food to the public, from street vendors like food vans to restaurants and cafes. To uphold this duty, they have a responsibility to make sure that:

Food is safe to eat
Nothing is added or removed to the food that would make it harmful to eat
Food isn’t treated in a way that would make it harmful to eat
Unsafe food is withdrawn
Their food hygiene rating is displayed

The Food Standards Act 1999 was established by the Food Standards Agency. Its main purpose is to set out food safety and standards to protect the public in relation to food. The Food Standards Act 1990 sets out the framework for all food legislation within England, Scotland and Wales.

If you were harmed by food poisoning because a vendor failed to comply with the Food Standards Act, and therefore breached their duty of care, then you may be able to claim. Contact our team today to learn more, or read on to find out how food poisoning can happen.

Common Causes Of Food Poisoning

There are a number of common causes of food poisoning, including:

Undercooked food: This especially applies to meats, like chicken, which can cause salmonella, but it can also apply to reheating foods like rice. For example, if a restaurant served extremely undercooked chicken, this could cause severe vomiting, cramps, and fever.
Food that hasn’t been stored properly: This could happen if a cafe left packages of egg sandwiches unrefrigerated for a number of days, and then put them out for sale, leading to customers suffering from severe food poisoning and bowel injuries.
Food that is past its sell-by date: If a cafe were to knowingly use milk that was out-of-date, this could cause customers to suffer severe flu-like symptoms, and may even lead to hospitalisation.
Cross-contamination: This can happen in a number of ways. For example, if a street food vendor used the same knife to cut raw chicken and ready-to-eat vegetables but didn’t wash it in between, this could spread salmonella to multiple customers, even if they didn’t eat the chicken themselves.

All of these cases include examples of negligence: in this case, this means improper handling of food by a business, leading to symptoms like vomiting, cramps, and even hospital admission. If you’ve been harmed in a similar manner, contact our team today to find out if you could make a claim.

How To File A Food Poisoning Compensation Claim

There are a number of important steps involved in filing a food poisoning compensation claim. These can include things like evidence, time limits, and seeking legal help.

What Evidence Do You Need?

You need evidence that will prove that negligence has occurred. So, this could include things like:

Pictures of clearly undercooked food or poor hygiene
Medical records showing the extent of the harm you suffered
Financial documents, like bank statements, showing how much money you lost as a result of the food poisoning
The contact details of potential witnesses, like anyone who saw the food being prepared or others who suffered the same illness

If you make your claim with the help of a solicitor from our panel, they can assist you with this step. For example, they can talk to witnesses and take their statements, and pursue alternative avenues of evidence.

Time Limits For Filing A Food Poisoning Claim

There are time limits for making any kind of personal injury claim, including a food poisoning claim. These are set out by the Limitation Act 1980, which states that you have 3 years to start a claim for personal injury compensation. This starts on the date that the negligence occurred.

However, you don’t need to finish your claim within the time limit; you just need to start proceedings before the 3 years have passed. In some cases, you may even be able to claim beyond this point, because the rule does come with some exceptions.

You can learn more about these exceptions and whether or not you are within the time limit to make a claim by contacting our team today.

No Win No Fee Food Poisoning Claims

Working with a solicitor can make the food poisoning claims process feel much less complex, but many people are still under the misconception that a high-quality solicitor has to be expensive, when this isn’t always the case.

Our panel of solicitors work on a No Win No Fee basis. A No Win No Fee arrangement, like a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), can be a good way to fund the work of a solicitor, without having to pay their fees:

Upfront
As the claim goes on
At all if the claim fails

Keep reading to learn more about how our panel of solicitors could help you. You can also contact our team and get started today.

How Our Panel Of Solicitors Can Help You Claim

Our panel of solicitors can help you claim by offering you their expert services. We always recommend working with a legal professional when you make a personal injury claim, and our panel of experts are here to help. We believe that everyone is deserving of top-tier legal representation, regardless of where you stand financially, and our panel are dedicated to providing high-quality representation to those who need it.

Our panel works with clients from all over the country, working tirelessly to help them secure the compensation that they deserve. This includes gathering evidence to build a strong case, explaining legal terminology and jargon, and negotiating a settlement that works for you.

But their hard work doesn’t stop at the negotiating table. They can also help you get in touch with a range of rehabilitation experts, ranging from occupational therapists to full-time carers. This means that you can focus on your recovery while they focus on your case.

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