Do not eat street food during the hot season!

[Takiap]

Each to his own I guess, but in 15 years, I have never yet been sick from eating street food. In fact, the only time food has made me sick in Thailand was at an expensive Japanese restaurant in Bangkok.

[caller]

About twice a year government surveys of markets/restaurants show up in the Bangkok Post and they always find pesticides way over the limit. Pete

Which is why a year or so back, europe, including the UK, banned all fresh vegetable produce from Thailand and I vaguely recall something about the ban being reintroduced?

[PeteC]

........ In fact, the only time food has made me sick in Thailand was at an expensive Japanese restaurant in Bangkok.

You just don't have a yen for it.

[uncle tom]

For the record, if it helps...

I once had a dodgy doner kebab (from a shop in north London) that passed from gob to the porcelain in under an hour, but with no lasting ill effect.

I also once had a dodgy Indian (from a small restaurant near the beach in HH) that took me out for a full two days, with attendant sickness, diarrhoea and dehydration.

Food related illness takes different forms - I avoid 'ethnic' food in Thailand now, and am cautious when indulging farang food.

Aside from hidden hyper-spicy elements, I don't worry about Thai food.

[PeteC]

About twice a year government surveys of markets/restaurants show up in the Bangkok Post and they always find pesticides way over the limit. Pete

Which is why a year or so back, europe, including the UK, banned all fresh vegetable produce from Thailand and I vaguely recall something about the ban being reintroduced?

Pesticides is a really confusing issue. If they're worth anything, they won't wash off in the rain or through irrigation. How should the consumer get the stuff off? Decades ago in the USA there was a product to wash fruits and veggies. Some natural solution containing citric acid, baking soda etc. Don't know if it's still sold or if it's effective. I doubt it's ever been sold here. Second is systemic pesticides that sink in down to the core. I doubt they can be removed at all and hopefully they won't kill us. Pete

[Takiap]

Just the other day I was reading an article relating to organic foods vs. regular foods. According to the study mentioned, nutritional values don't differ much between the two, but researchers did find that kids who ate only regular produce had higher concentrations of pesticides in their urine than those kids who ate only organic produce. How the hell does pesticide get into one's urine, especially if you're only eating organic foods? To be honest, I think that we as adults should be ashamed of ourselves. Young kids with traces of pesticides in their urine - disgraceful to say the least.


Will you be able to convince the locals to wash fruit and veg properly before using it? Not a chance in hell. A quick rinse under the tap gets rid of everything, and cooking kills the rest.


I'm not sure how true it is, but I have read that fruit and veg should be soaked in clean water for at least two to three minutes in order to get the chemicals off, and then rinsed under clean running water. Try telling that to the in-laws.


If you think of it, it's actually astonishing that one can no longer buy produce that isn't tainted. Most people however, simply don't even think about it, and then they wonder why they end up with cancer. Hats off to a few Farang up in the country who have decided to go organic.

[Ken57]

I agree common sense is needed, on my last trip to Bangkok, on my second day ( jetlagged)
I made the mistake of purchasing a freshly squeezed orange drink from a street vendor.

I ended up being so sick it was unbelivable, vomitting, dizzyness & weakness stomach pains
It ruined the first week of my stay and altered my travel plans, never again would I risk anything except a sealed can of drink from a street vendor.

[Dr Mike]

There is little logic in it. As other posters have noted you can eat in disgusting places with no bad effects and become ill after eating in 5 star hotels. 6 people can eat the same food and only one gets sick.
Hospitals look for patterns and rarely find them.
I think eating in busy places is a sound principle, food will tend to be fresher.
The suggestion that you should not eat in one place too often as the toxicity will build up is counter intuitive. If it were true that there were sub-attack level of bacteria present in one place then constant exposure would tend to lead to immunity.
One tip for BBQ food particularly chicken is to put in the microwave for a couple of minutes before BBQing this will help start the cooking process at deep levels but also M/W is excellent for killing microbes.

[STEVE G]

One tip for BBQ food particularly chicken is to put in the microwave for a couple of minutes before BBQing this will help start the cooking process at deep levels but also M/W is excellent for killing microbes.

For the same reason, I always bung street food that I've taken home into the microwave for a minute or so, to heat it and to kill anything harmful.

[Dannie Boy]

One of the basic principles of food hygiene is keep food either hot or cold, the worst thing possible is to keep it warm over a long period, allowing any germs to multiply. As has been suggested, you are safer to reheat (to very hot) and then allow to cool enough to eat, rather than just reheating enough to eat and risk not killing off any lurking bacteria.

[Arcadian]

In Germany a while back there were some severe cases of food poisoning even resulting in a few deaths. It was put down to water melons imported from Brazil which were fed with contaminated water, it seems water melons retain the liquid which feeds them.

[chelsea]

Have eaten very little street food, but have only been bad twice in Thailand and both times after eating breakfasts in 2 good quality hotels.

I can only pin down the cause to the use of reheated ham that they used to use instead of bacon. Now days there is no problem as most places all use proper bacon or you have the option of ham or bacon. Both times was sick for about 2 days and will not touch it at all now.

Have eaten from beach cafes/bars (which at times have the same sort of hygine as the street carts) and had no problems