Norovirus, fka the Norwalk virus, aka gastroenteritis, aka stomach flu is the most common food borne illness. About 20 million Americans will suffer from Norovirus each year. If you have a case of the "24 hour flu", aches, vomiting, etc, it is very likely Norovirus and it is very likely you contracted it from improper food handling AT HOME.
Now, before you curse at me or punch me out, stay with me. I'm willing to bet you my Bright Green chef coat there are two high priority health code violations in your refrigerator right now. Please understand, this is not an indictment of your culinary, parenting, or adulting skills, simply information of which the public is not aware.
Nearly every home refrigerator is by design, a health code violation. On the very bottom of the fridge is the crisper drawer for lettuce, produce, etc. In a commercial kitchen and according to FDA guidelines, all ready to eat product (like lettuce) has to be stored above raw food rather than below it. If raw chicken happens to drip onto your lettuce and you don't notice it, you might have a nasty surprise in store for you 24-48 hours later. Also, your egg tray, if there is anything underneath it, milk dressing,etc, that is a high priority violation. Because raw eggs and their parents, chicken, are the most hazardous of the food products, they should be stored on the bottom. There is solid reasoning for this but that is beyond the scope of this article.
If you have leftovers from last night in a container and you have a food thermometer, check the temperature. I'm willing to bet it is above 41° unless you took steps to cool it properly. 41° is the maximum temperature at which you can safely hold cold food. A regular home refrigerator is not designed to lower temperature quickly, it is designed to hold temperature. Improper cooling is most often the cause of that nagging 24 hour flu and it is more likely from home than from that Thai restaurant up the street, well that's debatable. If you have someone in your home considered high risk: pregnant women, elderly, young children, or anyone with a compromised immune system from disease or medical treatments, these honest mistakes can be serious.
Proper cooling of food is all about surface area and air flow. Think about a 30° day, pretty cold for us Florida people, with no wind, cold but not bad. Now, add a 20 mile per hour wind into the mix and wow, it's cold. The same physics apply to cooling food. A hot object, whether a person or hot food, has a small "bubble" of heat around it which helps to maintain the internal temperature. Wind blows away that bubble of heat and allows the cold to reach the food. Also, the greater the surface area exposed to the cold, the more quickly something cools. A naked person outdoors will get colder much faster than a clothed one. Food which is spread out will cool more quickly than food which is all together.
Now the solution. Don't laugh, this is what I do at home and my kids, of course, they laugh, but they don't get sick. Food has to be cooled from 135° to 70° within 2 hours and then from 70° to 41° over the next four, for a total of six hours. When you have leftover liquids, pasta, chili, stew, etc, place them in very shallow containers so the liquid is 1/2" to 1" deep, get a couple of those refreezable cooler ice blocks and put them in the food, keep the food uncovered and take up some of that precious real estate in your freezer near the fans. Get up once to stir the food to speed the cooling process along. Before you go to bed, check the temp and put the food into a regular storage container. Do this one step and watch your 24 hour flus decrease dramatically.
I've attached the following diagram to help with food storage in your home refrigerator. Eggs are not shown on this chart, but they should go on the bottom shelf with no other raw product above them.
