Holiday from hell: How eating Pad Thai from food court in Thailand left Aussie couple with debilitating illness

[holy cow cm]

Food courts sometimes have a low turnover and food is kept quite awhile and it is possible to get sick. For Padthai, it is possible to have a parasitic egg and not be phased by the quick flash cooking as you do for pad thai. It could co0me form the guy or girl not washing their hands after taking a dump, or after touching the raw pork and then their plate or food. It might take the parasites awhile to wake up so it might be believable as is not really like a food poisoning, but more unlikely came from a food court, but possible. They could have gotten it from a railing or somewhere at the airport or from inside the taxi. Looks like they are candidates for defamation for bad mouthing the Holy Thailand and its grail food.

[lannarebirth]

18 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

When you get food poisoning ,you get it within an hour or so , not days later when you get home ,so their story is a load of rubbish.

I've had food poisoning  exactly twice in Thailand. Both times after eating the same dish, Hoy Tod. It's  freaking delicious, but doesn't  seem to agree with me. Signs arose within the hour, vomitting, then all well. Imay giveit another go next time I'm back.

[Andrew65]

8 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

I've had food poisoning  exactly twice in Thailand. Both times after eating the same dish, Hoy Tod. It's  freaking delicious, but doesn't  seem to agree with me. Signs arose within the hour, vomitting, then all well. Imay giveit another go next time I'm back.

Seafood.

[lannarebirth]

4 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

Seafood.

 

Yep. I'm thinking the Hoy Tod may be prepared from yesterdays seafood that didn't sell. If I try it again I'll pick the fresh ingredients myself.

 

 

 

 

[Curt1591]

It's almost impossible to identify the source. One's own dirty hands are one of the more common causes of food contamination.

[Andrew65]

Just now, Curt1591 said:

It's almost impossible to identify the source. One's own dirty hands are one of the more common causes of food contamination.

You're right there. I only really became a regular before-food hand-washer during my time living in Thailand.

[jak2002003]

1 hour ago, Anythingleft? said:

Pretty easy to narrow down the meal that starts an episode of food poisoning.....

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
 

Really... several weeks later is in the OP story?

 

55 minutes ago, bkkbudddy said:

Greetings, 

I had many episodes of food poisoning in Thailand!  Therefore,  I'm very careful of what and where I eat in Thailand!

Greetings,

I have had ZERO episodes of food poisoning in Thailand in 12 years living here full time, eating at food courts, buying food from local small markets, and eating at local small Thai restaurants and friends houses. I eat  raw prawns, raw buffalo laab, Lu (Blood soup) and fermented pork on a regular basis, as well as all the local Northern foods.  

 

I have had food poisoning in the UK which nearly killed me and required me to get hospitalised… Campylobacter.  

28 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

I never ate street food when I lived in Thailand (except fruit), I also never got sick. How long has the raw food been out of the refrigerator or freezer. Where does the operator of the food stall go to the toilet and where do they wash their hands?

 

Then you have missed out of a big part of coming to Thailand, where the street food is probably the best in the world.  You have a false sense of security about where you eat I think... as many proper restaurants have been found to have out of date food, filthy kitchens and give people food poisoning.  Also you don't know the way food is kept behind the scenes in supermarkets either.  I could tell you a few horror stories from when I was a youth working in a big supermarket.

25 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

From the OP, "Shortly after returning home they both began to feel unwell". Not 1 hour later, not 1 day later !!!!

They got home to Australia then felt sick, amazing detective skills to link it back to one specific meal eaten days/weeks prior.

Exactly.  

[sweatalot]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Shortly after returning home they both began to feel unwell

 

1 hour ago, Anythingleft? said:

Pretty easy to narrow down the meal that starts an episode of food poisoning.....

where is it said they had a food poisoning in Thailand?

 

food posoning: severe diarrhea and vomiting shortly after the contaminated meal

[yokat]

4 minutes ago, Curt1591 said:

It's almost impossible to identify the source. One's own dirty hands are one of the more common causes of food contamination.

In Thailand I genuinely feel like I need to wash my hands before eating or when coming back from outside (commute, groceries, etc). I was not like that in my home country but I really feel like I'm more at risk here.

 

I didn't get any major food poisoning in the last 2 years, just the occasional upset stomach and that doesn't last. I am always a little scared when sharing the sticky rice with the in-laws but so far I'm fine.

[Lucius verus]

1 hour ago, 4MyEgo said:

I learned a few years ago to only eat at the same place that I have eaten before, or if it's a new place, not before the wife gives the nod.

 

Thai's are generally not clean when it comes to cooking or hygiene, believe you me, I don't say that lightly, having seen first hand on many occasions their lack of preparing food or not throwing food out to save on losses.

 

When travelling on planes, I take my own sandwich and some light healthy snacks, like almonds etc, plane food is not a good source of food and is high in salt and sugar to keep its shelf life longer.

 

Eating my wife's cooking reminds me day in, day out that I am the world's luckiest bloke who eats at the best restaurant (home), with everythings she makes being made from love, yet she still asks me with uncertainty after 12 years of marriage, "is ok" Tiruk, with a half smile ?

 

Reading your cheesy post actually made me feel quite ill. Don't worry I will blame it on pad Thai.

SEP SEP

SEP ILLI

 

[Mavideol]

oh boy, bad news for TAT tourists forecast, going down again.... step by step elimination Westerners, Chinese, Australians and (very) soon the (rich) Indians

[Tropicalevo]

1 hour ago, bkkbudddy said:

Greetings, 

I had many episodes of food poisoning in Thailand!  Therefore,  I'm very careful of what and where I eat in Thailand!

I have lived on Samui for the last 19 years. In and out of Bangkok and other parts of SE Asia for 7 years before that. Worked in Cambodia and travelled extensively throughout Vietnam.

 

Eaten everywhere and anything - never had food poisoning.

 

10 pints of Banks' bitter in my old local in the UK - sick as a parrot.

 

Moral of the story - it is who you are, not what you eat. (But I do eat active yoghurt every morning for breakie.)

[Anythingleft?]

Exactly.  

Aaah well I missed that little detail hahaha.....

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[bkk6060]

50 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Thai's dont wash their hands after having a shi# 

How do you know?

You smell their fingers?

 

Anyway, that part of their life is actually cleaner here then western use of toilet paper.  The spraying of the back side here I think is much more hygienic and basically they touch nothing.

As opposed to having your finger pop thru some cheap toilet paper in the west.

[Andrew65]

3 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

Really... several weeks later is in the OP story?

 

Greetings,

I have had ZERO episodes of food poisoning in Thailand in 12 years living here full time, eating at food courts, buying food from local small markets, and eating at local small Thai restaurants and friends houses. I eat  raw prawns, raw buffalo laab, Lu (Blood soup) and fermented pork on a regular basis, as well as all the local Northern foods.  

 

I have had food poisoning in the UK which nearly killed me and required me to get hospitalised… Campylobacter.  

Then you have missed out of a big part of coming to Thailand, where the street food is probably the best in the world.  You have a false sense of security about where you eat I think... as many proper restaurants have been found to have out of date food, filthy kitchens and give people food poisoning.  Also you don't know the way food is kept behind the scenes in supermarkets either.  I could tell you a few horror stories from when I was a youth working in a big supermarket.

Exactly.  

On my daily walks at sun-up in Bangkok I would often see rats scurrying over parked-up food stalls.

 

Also, I wouldn't eat raw seafood even if I'd seen it caught, killed and served in front of me, I don't eat any kind of raw meat or seafood, period. I don't care how good someone else says it is.

 

Two times in Bangkok friends ate oysters, they were both seriously ill for days afterwards.

 

As far as look and smell goes, oysters are the most disgusting things (also, "people eat with their eyes").

[chessman]

It seems odd that they can blame that one meal, maybe when they were eating it it tasted a bit funny... and then that stuck in the mind when they became sick later.

 

I remember talking to guy who worked in the restaurant industry and he said that he thought it was much more likely to get food poisoning from mid-level hotel food (lot of stuff being reused for various buffets) than it was from street food. He also said that he didn't think the price of the meal had a strong connection with the food hygiene standards. so maybe the Pad Thai was the one time they 'went native' and ate a really cheap meal and so they blame that... even though the shrimp curry in the buffet breakfast was the more likely culprit.

[VocalNeal]

Reporter forgot to add  "found in the gastrointestinal tract of some humans, pigs and gorillas" 

 

So as Pad Thai doesn't contain pork? 

[Tropicalevo]

23 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

 

Yep. I'm thinking the Hoy Tod may be prepared from yesterdays seafood that didn't sell. If I try it again I'll pick the fresh ingredients myself.

 

Or you might be sensitive to shellfish. Many people are.

[Just Weird]

1 hour ago, Anythingleft? said:

Pretty easy to narrow down the meal that starts an episode of food poisoning.....
 

It wasn't food poisoning! 

[lannarebirth]

3 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

Or you might be sensitive to shellfish. Many people are.

You don't want to get in my way at the all you can eat crab buffet. And while you're looking out for me I'm looking to stay out of my wife's way.

[Just Weird]

1 hour ago, bert bloggs said:

When you get food poisoning ,you get it within an hour or so , not days later when you get home ,so their story is a load of rubbish.

No one claimed that they had food poisoning.

[Just Weird]

1 hour ago, ChipButty said:

Thai's dont wash their hands after having a shi# 

Neither do westerners and Australians.

[Andrew65]

8 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

Or you might be sensitive to shellfish. Many people are.

If you collect bivalve molluscs (oyster, razor clams, cockles, mussels) from the wild and eat them raw, there is a reasonable chance you will poison yourself.

The list of possible toxic agents is long and worrying. Bacteria, such as E coli, are almost always present at some level in any bivalve. There is also a risk in some areas of pollution from heavy metals and industrial compounds. The most exotic of infestations are the algal species that can suddenly arise in so-called algal blooms. These produce an interesting variety of toxins with an interesting variety of symptoms.

[tabarin]

So many times I have to get angry in this house to get anything cleaned the slightest, same for keeping foods for because of not wanting to throw it away.
I am surprised the Thais who do this, are still alive. I told her to either fix the mess or I will hire someone to do it, or leave.

I have felt the strangest things from food here, sometimes making me feel bad for days. 
Specially when I come back from a trip in Chonburi or Bangkok and similar.

To be honest I am still confused by it as I always thought these Thais are so clean, but I would say opposite is true.
Unless cleaning the floor quickly, with a 10x used dwell, counts.

[Just Weird]

2 minutes ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

Speaking from experience?

No, just making a comment as ridiculous as the poster's that I responded to make a point.

[jak2002003]

17 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

On my daily walks at sun-up in Bangkok I would often see rats scurrying over parked-up food stalls.

 

Also, I wouldn't eat raw seafood even if I'd seen it caught, killed and served in front of me, I don't eat any kind of raw meat or seafood, period. I don't care how good someone else says it is.

 

Two times in Bangkok friends ate oysters, they were both seriously ill for days afterwards.

 

As far as look and smell goes, oysters are the most disgusting things (also, "people eat with their eyes").

OK, you are basically just saying you won't eat sea food on any kind because you don't like any of it... from the thousands of different sea foods you could try.. you don't like a single one... even without trying them? Wow.  

 

Have you ever tried an oyster?  

 

So what if you saw rats on your walks.  Do you think there are no rats in the back of the supermarkets, the food stores, the farang restaurants in the city?  

 

I guess its 'out of sight out of mind' for you.  Something wrapped in plastic and date stamped and looking pretty is in your view safe and delicious.  

 

 

[CharlieH]

Load of sensationalizing ! 

There was no "food poisoning" it was a "parasite", that could have been picked up in many places, so to pin it to one specific meal on one specific day, two year earlier is nonsense.(IMHO).

[Basil B]

1 dish of Pad Thai...

They must have eaten many places while on holiday, The yet I do not recall a outbreak of food poisoning from a food court? yet both of them got sick? yet no one else and no Public Health officials running round shutting down food courts???

This smells like a tart's knickers draw... 

[Andrew65]

5 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

OK, you are basically just saying you won't eat sea food on any kind because you don't like any of it... from the thousands of different sea foods you could try.. you don't like a single one... even without trying them? Wow.  

 

Have you ever tried an oyster?  

 

So what if you saw rats on your walks.  Do you think there are no rats in the back of the supermarkets, the food stores, the farang restaurants in the city?  

 

I guess its 'out of sight out of mind' for you.  Something wrapped in plastic and date stamped and looking pretty is in your view safe and delicious.  

 

 

I would never eat an oyster.

 

On one of the occasions of food-poisoning by oyster that I mentioned, this occurred at a five star hotel in Bangkok, not even a food stall. (I will not name the hotel because I don't wish to impugn what is probably otherwise a good reputation).

 

"If you collect bivalve molluscs (oyster, razor clams, cockles, mussels) from the wild and eat them raw, there is a reasonable chance you will poison yourself.

The list of possible toxic agents is long and worrying. Bacteria, such as E coli, are almost always present at some level in any bivalve". 

[Isaanbiker]

Blaming Thailand and the street food is totally insane.

 

  There's other food that could be way more dangerous. I've never had any issues after eating Paad Thai, btw.