Reporting Suspected Foodborne and Waterborne Illness
Foodborne and Waterborne Illness Complaints

On this page:
Report a suspected foodborne or waterborne illness
Why should I call the hotline?
What do I need to know before I call?
What are the hotline hours?
What happens after I call?

Why should I call the hotline?

• Your call to the hotline helps us identify foodborne and waterborne illness outbreaks in Minnesota and prevent the spread of illness to others.

What do I need to know before I call?

• Foodborne illness often occurs 1 to 4 days after eating contaminated foods.
• Waterborne illness usually occurs 2 to 14 days after swimming in or drinking contaminated water.
• Hotline staff will ask you about your symptoms and the foods you ate and where you ate them in the 4 days before your illness began. They will also ask if you drank any water collected from a lake, river, or spring or went swimming in the 2 weeks before your illness.
• All information we collect about your illness is private. We will not release your name to anyone outside the public health system without your permission.

What are the Hotline Hours?

• The Foodborne and Waterborne Illness Hotline is staffed from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (not including Holidays).
• If someone is not available to take your call, please leave a confidential voice message with your name and daytime telephone number. We will return all messages left after normal business hours the next working day.
• You may also email your illness report to health.foodill@state.mn.us. Please include your name and daytime telephone number in your message.

What happens after I call?

• We will forward your report to the environmental health staff responsible for inspecting the restaurants, delis, grocery stores, pools, lakes, or water systems you mention.
• All information we collect about your illness is private. We will not release your name to anyone outside the public health system without your permission.
• We may ask you for a stool sample so that we can determine what is making you ill.

• Hotline Print Materials