A customer says your food made them sick: the first 24 hours for the person in charge

The phone rings on a Monday morning and a customer says the chicken wrap they bought on Saturday made them sick. As the person in charge, you need a clear plan for a customer food poisoning complaint: what to do in the first hour, what to keep, who to tell and what to say. Get the first 24 hours right and you protect the customer, your other customers and your business.

Taking the call: the details you need and the words to avoid

Stay calm, listen and write things down. The customer is unwell and probably angry. Your job on this call is to collect facts, not to win an argument. Use a standard complaint form so nothing is missed. Record:

• The customer’s name and contact number, and the best time to call back.
• What they ate and drank, the date and time of purchase, and the branch or till.
• How it was eaten: on site, takeaway, delivery, and how long before it was eaten.
• When symptoms started and what they are (vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, stomach cramps).
• Whether anyone else who ate the same food is ill, and whether others who ate different food are fine.
• Whether they have seen a doctor or clinic, and whether a stool sample was taken.
• What other food they ate in the day or two before getting sick.
• Whether they still have any leftover food or packaging, or the receipt.

Words to avoid: “That’s impossible, our food is safe”, “It must have been something else” and “We’ll pay your medical bills”. The first two sound dismissive. The last one sounds like an admission before you know anything. Better: “I am sorry you are unwell. I am taking this seriously and we are going to check everything about that meal. I will call you back by tomorrow afternoon.”

Timing matters. Vomiting that starts within a few hours of eating points towards toxins already in the food, such as those of Staphylococcus aureus or Bacillus cereus. Infections such as Salmonella or Campylobacter usually take from about half a day to several days to show. Customers usually blame the last meal they ate, which is not always the right one. Record the facts and leave the conclusion to the investigation.

Secure the evidence: leftovers, samples and records

Evidence disappears quickly in a kitchen. Within the first hour:

• Ask the customer to keep any leftovers in the fridge in a sealed bag, together with the packaging. Do not collect it yourself if the EHP may want it; agree how it will be handled.
• Hold any of the same batch still on site. Label it “HOLD: do not use”, date it and put it in the fridge or freezer, away from other stock. Do not throw it away.
• Keep retained samples if your business keeps them (caterers and hotels often do).
• Pull the records for that day: delivery and receiving records, fridge and freezer temperature logs, cooking and cooling records, hot holding checks, cleaning schedules, the staff roster and the supplier invoices with batch numbers.
• Photograph the relevant fridges, labels and storage as they are now.

Do not change, rewrite or complete records after the complaint. An Environmental Health Practitioner will spot it, and it destroys your credibility.

Check your own kitchen: staff health, temperatures and suppliers

Now look honestly at your own operation. The common causes of food poisoning are well known: food left too long at room temperature, slow cooling of large batches, undercooking, cross-contamination from raw to ready-to-eat food, and an ill food handler.

• Staff health. Ask who was working on that day, and whether anyone had vomiting, diarrhoea, fever or an infected cut. Under R638 a food handler with symptoms like these may not handle food until a medical practitioner certifies them fit, and the person in charge must make sure that happens. Check the illness record R638 expects you to keep, and whether anyone has called in sick since.
• Temperatures. Check the logs for the fridges, hot holding and cooling of that product. Look for gaps as well as readings outside your limits.
• Process. Was the chicken cooked fresh or cooked the day before and reheated? Were sauces made in large batches? Clostridium perfringens and Bacillus cereus favour cooked food that is cooled slowly or kept warm for long periods.
• Suppliers. Note batch numbers of high risk ingredients and whether the supplier has had other complaints or a recall.
• Other complaints. Check every channel (phone, email, delivery apps, social media) for other customers reporting illness.

Stop, hold or carry on selling: making the call

This is a judgement call for the person in charge, and it should be recorded with the reasons. A useful rule of thumb:

What you find	Sensible action
One complaint, records complete, no staff illness, nothing else unusual	Carry on selling, monitor closely, keep the held stock
One complaint plus a gap in records or a doubtful process for that item	Stop selling that item until the process is checked and corrected
Two or more unrelated customers ill after the same item or day	Stop selling the item, hold all stock and contact your EHP
A food handler with symptoms worked on the item	Exclude the handler, stop the item, clean and disinfect, contact your EHP

Stopping one menu item for a day costs far less than being linked to an outbreak.

Outbreaks and the EHP: when you must report and what follows

In South Africa, a foodborne disease outbreak is a Category 1 notifiable medical condition under the National Health Act regulations, which means immediate notification. The doctors, clinics and laboratories that see linked cases report them, and the municipal Environmental Health Practitioners investigate. In other words, if several people were ill, the EHP may arrive whether or not you called.

It is far better for the EHP to hear it from you first. Our advice is to contact your local environmental health office yourself when you have two or more complaints that may be linked, when a complainant has been admitted to hospital, or when you find a staff illness or a clear process failure. Your Certificate of Acceptability was issued by the same municipal service, and a cooperative relationship counts.

An EHP investigation usually involves an inspection of the premises against R638, interviews with staff, a review of your records, and possibly samples of food, surfaces or water and stool samples from staff. They may give instructions, such as stopping a process or closing until faults are corrected. Cooperate, provide what they ask for promptly and keep a copy of everything you hand over.

A short scenario. A caterer in Durban received calls from three guests after a Saturday wedding. The person in charge held the remaining rice and curry, pulled the cooking and cooling records and phoned the EHP on Monday morning. The records showed a 30 litre pot of rice cooked on Friday and cooled overnight on the stove. The investigation pointed to slow cooling. Rice cooled slowly like this is a classic setting for Bacillus cereus. Because the caterer reported early and had records, the outcome was a written instruction to fix the cooling process and a new cooling procedure, not a closure.

Talking to the customer, your insurer and social media

• The customer. Call back when you said you would. Explain what you checked, without blaming them. If an investigation is open, say so.
• Your insurer. If you have public or product liability insurance, notify them early and ask how they want claims and medical costs handled. Do not agree to pay anything before they have advised you.
• Social media. Respond once, publicly and calmly: you are sorry they are unwell, you take it seriously and you have asked them to contact you directly. Move the conversation to a phone call. Do not argue, delete fair comments or share the customer’s details.
• Your staff. Tell them what happened and that nobody speaks to the media or posts about it.

Closing it out: root cause and changes

Whatever the outcome, close the complaint properly. Record what you found, the most likely cause (or that no cause linked to your business was found), the corrective actions, who is responsible and by when. Then check, a few weeks later, that the change has stuck. Typical fixes are a cooling procedure for large batches, a staff illness reporting rule, smaller batches of high risk items or retraining on cross-contamination.

Handling a complaint like this is a core skill for anyone running food premises. Our R638 training for persons in charge of food premises covers the person in charge’s legal duties, staff health, temperature control and record keeping. The course is SAATCA registered and HPCSA CPD accredited.

What to do this week

• Print a one page food illness complaint form and keep it next to every phone.
• Write the name and number of your municipal environmental health office on it.
• Agree who holds suspect stock and where it goes.
• Check that your staff illness reporting rule is written down and understood.
• Check where your temperature, cooling and supplier records are kept, and that they are complete for the last week.