Got Food Poisoning From a Restaurant? Here’s How to Claim Compensation

Dinner was Saturday. By 3am Sunday you were on the bathroom floor. Two days off work, a GP visit, a script, and a partner who got it too. You called the restaurant and got “we’ve had no other complaints” and “are you sure it wasn’t something else you ate?” Then nothing.

Food poisoning claims feel hard because the restaurant controls the kitchen and you’re stuck with a receipt and a bad memory. But the evidence you need is mostly medical, and the law puts the obligation on the business, not you.

Your rights

• Consumer guarantee of acceptable quality (s 54 ACL). Food is goods. Food that makes you sick is not of acceptable quality, and it’s not safe, which is one of the specific limbs of s 54. You’re entitled to a refund and to compensation for reasonably foreseeable consequential loss (s 259(4)): medical costs, medication, lost wages, and out-of-pocket expenses.
• Consumer guarantee for services (s 60 ACL). The restaurant service must be provided with due care and skill. Unsafe food handling is a failure.
• State food safety law. Every state has a Food Act (Food Act 2003 New South Wales, Food Act 1984 Victoria, Food Act 2006 Queensland, Food Act 2008 Western Australia, Food Act 2001 South Australia) enforced by local councils and the state food authority, requiring compliance with the Food Standards Code, temperature control, and safe handling. A council inspection triggered by your report can produce the evidence you can’t get yourself.
• Negligence. For serious illness (hospitalisation, lasting effects), a personal injury claim in negligence may be available with higher damages. That’s a lawyer conversation. For the more common few-days-in-bed case, the ACL and the tribunal are the right tools.

What to do right now

1. See a doctor and ask for a stool sample test. A confirmed pathogen (salmonella, campylobacter, norovirus, and so on) with an onset time consistent with the meal is the single most important piece of evidence. Ask the GP to note the suspected source in the record.
2. Report it to the council and the state food authority today. Councils inspect on complaint. If they find temperature or handling breaches, or if others have reported the same restaurant, your claim becomes very hard to deny. In New South Wales report to the New South Wales Food Authority; in Victoria to the council and the Department of Health; in Queensland to the council and Queensland Health.
3. Keep everything. The receipt or card statement, any leftover food (bag it and freeze it; the food authority may test it), photos, messages with anyone else who ate the same meal, the medical certificate, and receipts for medication and any expenses.
4. Write down a timeline. What you ate and when, what everyone else at the table ate, when symptoms started, what else you ate that day. Onset times matter: 6–72 hours after the meal is typical for bacterial food poisoning.
5. Put the restaurant on written notice. Email: “On [date] I ate [dish] at your restaurant. I became ill with [diagnosis] on [date]. I have reported this to [council/food authority]. Under the Australian Consumer Law I require a refund and compensation of $[amount] for medical costs and lost income within 14 days.”
6. Send a Letter of Demand. A formal letter citing s 54 and s 259 of the ACL, the medical evidence, the itemised loss, and a deadline before fair trading and tribunal. Restaurants have public liability insurance; a formal demand is what makes them notify the insurer.

Proving it was the restaurant

You don’t need to prove it beyond reasonable doubt. The tribunal standard is the balance of probabilities. What makes it more likely than not: a lab-confirmed pathogen with an onset time that fits; more than one person from the same table falling ill; a council inspection finding breaches; other complaints about the same venue (councils will sometimes confirm whether there have been others); and the absence of another plausible source. What weakens it: no medical visit, a long delay before reporting, and a household where others ate elsewhere and got the same illness.

Compensation figures: refund of the meal, GP and pharmacy costs, lost wages (payslip or letter from your employer), and reasonable expenses. For a typical case that’s a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. General damages for pain and suffering are available in negligence for serious cases but are limited by state thresholds.

Delivery and takeaway: the same rules apply to a restaurant’s food delivered through Uber Eats, DoorDash or Menulog. The restaurant is still the supplier of the food. The platform’s refund process is a quick way to get the meal cost back, but the compensation claim for illness is against the restaurant. Keep the app order screenshot; it proves what you ate and when.

Who to complain to

Your local council environmental health team and your state food authority (New South Wales Food Authority, Victorian Department of Health, Queensland Health, Western Australia Department of Health, SA Health) for the safety breach. Your state fair trading body for the consumer claim. Your state civil tribunal for compensation. For serious injury, a personal injury solicitor on a no-win-no-fee basis.

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