The time it takes for food poisoning symptoms to appear varies widely depending on the cause, but generally:

• Most people start to feel symptoms about 6 hours after eating contaminated food, especially with common bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus, which is often linked to foods like potato salad left out too long

• Symptoms can appear as quickly as 30 minutes to 1 hour for some toxins (e.g., Staph aureus) or as late as several days or even weeks for other pathogens like Listeria or Hepatitis A virus

• Typical onset times for some common causes:
  • Staphylococcus aureus: 30 minutes to 8 hours
  • Clostridium perfringens: 6 to 24 hours
  • Salmonella: 6 hours to 6 days
  • Norovirus: 12 to 48 hours
  • E. coli: 1 to 10 days
  • Listeria: 9 hours to weeks
  • Hepatitis A: 15 to 50 days

Symptoms usually include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and sometimes fever and headache. Most cases resolve within a few days without serious complications

. In summary, food poisoning symptoms typically begin within a few hours to a couple of days after eating contaminated food, but the exact timing depends on the specific microorganism or toxin involved.