'I Was Poisoned': Can Crowdsourcing Food Illnesses Help Stop Outbreaks?
People can use the website to report restaurants, symptoms and whether they notified health department officials. But there are potential downsides — like mistaken culprits and malicious accusations.
In 2008, Patrick Quade ducked out of his office at Morgan Stanley in Manhattan and stopped at a corner deli for a BLT wrap. The next day he suffered explosive diarrhea and was vomiting so violently, "it was like some force was just wringing my stomach out." When he called the deli to report the incident, they said they were not to blame and hung up on him.
"Food poisoning kills 3,000 people a year," says Quade. "I thought to myself, I don't know for sure it was the deli. But what if 30 or 40 people in the neighborhood went to that deli and also got sick? Who would know?"
Quade has a point. Though the American food supply is among the safest.
