Hygiene in the food industry

[oldsailor35]

Visiting the MAKRO store in Lamai, it was a pleasure to see how hygienically  that store is run, especially in the meat section, where most meat is covered, and handling by the public is obviously controlled with the availability of plastic throwaway gloves and staff supervision. Congratulations to the manager.

However at the other store it is a completely different situation, often there are no gloves, and i am not confident that the staff are trained in the handling of goods. I was standing by the  Belly Pork bin watching a Thai lady , up to her elbows in the belly pork , no gloves, hooking around for the piece which she wanted. At the same time a butchery staff member was standing watching her with no comment whatsoever. Is this indicative of good staff training.

[Minnehaha]

it is indicative of your astute powers of observation.

 

overall, I find the "food industry" (whatever that definition includes) to be shockingly good. It is a bizarre miracle we are not all sicker more often than we are, which is relatively infrequently. 

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, Minnehaha said:

it is indicative of your astute powers of observation.

 

overall, I find the "food industry" (whatever that definition includes) to be shockingly good. It is a bizarre miracle we are not all sicker more often than we are, which is relatively infrequently. 

Yeah, cooking the food kills the nasties. This is the only reason.

[Muhendis]

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

Yeah, cooking the food kills the nasties. This is the only reason.

Problem is that although the food will undoubtedly be cooked enough to cleanse it, the germs will be on the customers hands as they walk around examining various other goods. This is why Makro has a hand wash station adjacent to the meat section.

[bazza73]

Fortunately, Thailand does not seem to have the same level of house and bush flies as in Australia. If it did, all the meat in the market stalls would be black with them.

[mindovermatter]

Yes, although there are establishments that do practise proper food handling and food safety standards, most don't.

[NYGuy816]

Indeed, quite expected in Thailand. Love Thai food anyway!
 

[Tchooptip]

On 09/10/2017 at 3:49 PM, Minnehaha said:

it is indicative of your astute powers of observation.

 

overall, I find the "food industry" (whatever that definition includes) to be shockingly good. It is a bizarre miracle we are not all sicker more often than we are, which is relatively infrequently. 

I have never been sick in more than five years... maybe I am just lucky?

[bazza73]

I get the occasional bout of food poisoning, approximately once a year. A couple of hours of retching and diarrhea, which is my body rejecting the stuff. Fine in 8 - 10 hours.

I've had it with local market squid, packaged beef and restaurant chicken. Invariably it's from a new source. My trusted restaurants and market stalls have never caused a problem.

Thailand is lucky in that house flies don't seem to breed here in large numbers. If food was exposed in Australia like it is here, it would cause a pandemic of food poisoning.