Jump to content



Meat Hygeine


oldsailor35

Recommended Posts

Most westerners are far too germaphobic and greatly weaken their immune systems. Coming to Thailand takes care of that all right 8-)

Seriously, just wash your meat before you cook it, and cook it thoroughly, which you should anyway and there's no problem. Stop being so fussy, or at least stop complaining about things you're never going to change. Or perhaps go talk to the butcher at the back and ask for a special cut, shouldn't be a problem, sometimes the only way to get ground beef at most places.

If you're so concerned about your health what are you doing eating commercially grown meat anyway - do some research and you won't want to anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 104
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Road side stalls, in the middle of know where, no toilet

Vendor needs to use the facilities behind a tree

No place to wash hands, does he :

Close the shop because his hands are dirty?

Or continue as normal handling food ?

Its not anti-thai, its just the reality of it, in Many countries sub standard or no health standards are practiced

That is just silly. There is always water at road side stands. They wash things. They drink water. Thais are water freaks. There is water everywhere. Maybe you are talking about India. Thais are very clean people. Tell us exactly where you saw a Thai vendor scratching his arshol. An Arshol is a very specific organ and occupies a very specific place on the body. Thais are also modest. What vendor would show you his or her arshol? Time to admit it. You were making things up. You have never seen this in Thailand. And also tell us if it is a common occurrence. Where do you see vendors scratching their arshols every day?

if you think thailands hygiene practices are up to western standards ,i dont know what part of the west you came from ........

in europe ,its ILLEGAL to work in a food prep area ,without a hair-net ,hands must be washed and THEN GLOVED and ear rings ,nose rings ,

spots ,pimples ,coldsores must be covered with a plaster before you go near the food

Anyone who thinks all this happens in the average thailand food place has a wealth of no idea! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only time I will not buy meat from the market here in Chumphon is on the days that meat is not slaughtered, the meat is often not stored in a coolroom over night, brought meat once in Lang Suan on a no slaughter day, the meat stank of amonia, so didn't even get to eat it, just tossed it and learnt from the experience. Nothing wrong with buying meat from the market otherwise, at least its not stored for weeks after slaughter like back home, it is actually fresh here, killed on the day, never been sick from meat purchased at the market.

Google "aging beef" if you want to be well informed about the process. If you would rather your home spun ideas; don't. Up to you.

Yes, aging beef does provide a more tender cut, but things such as cool rooms and cold rooms are simply not available in most places in Thailand, so the aging process is pretty well out of the question, and since the majority of Thais do not eat beef, but prefer pork, chicken or fish and also do not have the facilities at home to store meat for any period of time. There is beef available in the markets, but I rarely see more than one or two stalls selling it, and since there are no cool or cold storage facilities available it is butchered fresh that day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only time I will not buy meat from the market here in Chumphon is on the days that meat is not slaughtered, the meat is often not stored in a coolroom over night, brought meat once in Lang Suan on a no slaughter day, the meat stank of amonia, so didn't even get to eat it, just tossed it and learnt from the experience. Nothing wrong with buying meat from the market otherwise, at least its not stored for weeks after slaughter like back home, it is actually fresh here, killed on the day, never been sick from meat purchased at the market.

I had a talk with my pharmacist a while ago. He told me after the war or during the war his mother sold meat and with washing in a specific chemical she could change old grey smelly meat in fresh looking and smelling one.

My guess that method isn't unknown in Thailand as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only time I will not buy meat from the market here in Chumphon is on the days that meat is not slaughtered, the meat is often not stored in a coolroom over night, brought meat once in Lang Suan on a no slaughter day, the meat stank of amonia, so didn't even get to eat it, just tossed it and learnt from the experience. Nothing wrong with buying meat from the market otherwise, at least its not stored for weeks after slaughter like back home, it is actually fresh here, killed on the day, never been sick from meat purchased at the market.

I had a talk with my pharmacist a while ago. He told me after the war or during the war his mother sold meat and with washing in a specific chemical she could change old grey smelly meat in fresh looking and smelling one.

My guess that method isn't unknown in Thailand as well.

Probably similar to the chemical that Thais use on old fish and squid, keeps the flesh firm while stopping the old fish smell. The wife says they embalming fluid, she says the fishes eyes go red after a while.

Edited by TomTao
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Road side stalls, in the middle of know where, no toilet

Vendor needs to use the facilities behind a tree

No place to wash hands, does he :

Close the shop because his hands are dirty?

Or continue as normal handling food ?

Its not anti-thai, its just the reality of it, in Many countries sub standard or no health standards are practiced

That is just silly. There is always water at road side stands. They wash things. They drink water. Thais are water freaks. There is water everywhere. Maybe you are talking about India. Thais are very clean people. Tell us exactly where you saw a Thai vendor scratching his arshol. An Arshol is a very specific organ and occupies a very specific place on the body. Thais are also modest. What vendor would show you his or her arshol? Time to admit it. You were making things up. You have never seen this in Thailand. And also tell us if it is a common occurrence. Where do you see vendors scratching their arshols every day?

if you think thailands hygiene practices are up to western standards ,i dont know what part of the west you came from ........

in europe ,its ILLEGAL to work in a food prep area ,without a hair-net ,hands must be washed and THEN GLOVED and ear rings ,nose rings ,

spots ,pimples ,coldsores must be covered with a plaster before you go near the food

Anyone who thinks all this happens in the average thailand food place has a wealth of no idea! smile.png

any one who thinks this happens in all western food prep also has a wealth of no idea

i worked for several years around commercial kitchens and i have seem some horrors such as frozen meat defrosting in the sun, cheese scavenged from a half eaten burger in the bin to make another burger, fridges full of rotten mouldy foods the smell in some kitchens was bad

its the same all over there are good and bad you never know what goes on behind the kitchen doors w00t.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just done some brief reseach via Google and their is a WHO report that states approx 1,000,000 cases p.a. of food related illness in Thailand in 2004 refer http://www.fao.org/D...3E/AD703E00.HTM

A more recent scientific study, 2011, of food bourne disease in Thailand is http://www.eurojourn...JSR_52_1_13.pdf

how does this compare to a western country UK say

From what I can gather after reading through the two links provided is that the rate of food poisoning per head of population in Thailand is actually quite low, especially when you consider the conditions the Thais in the lower income spectrum live.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Road side stalls, in the middle of know where, no toilet

Vendor needs to use the facilities behind a tree

No place to wash hands, does he :

Close the shop because his hands are dirty?

Or continue as normal handling food ?

Its not anti-thai, its just the reality of it, in Many countries sub standard or no health standards are practiced

That is just silly. There is always water at road side stands. They wash things. They drink water. Thais are water freaks. There is water everywhere. Maybe you are talking about India. Thais are very clean people. Tell us exactly where you saw a Thai vendor scratching his arshol. An Arshol is a very specific organ and occupies a very specific place on the body. Thais are also modest. What vendor would show you his or her arshol? Time to admit it. You were making things up. You have never seen this in Thailand. And also tell us if it is a common occurrence. Where do you see vendors scratching their arshols every day?

if you think thailands hygiene practices are up to western standards ,i dont know what part of the west you came from ........

in europe ,its ILLEGAL to work in a food prep area ,without a hair-net ,hands must be washed and THEN GLOVED and ear rings ,nose rings ,

spots ,pimples ,coldsores must be covered with a plaster before you go near the food

Anyone who thinks all this happens in the average thailand food place has a wealth of no idea! smile.png

Bendix is correct. I didn't say that. I didn't say the Thai standards on the street are up to Western Standards. The other poster wrote arshol for the shock value. For the anti value. The other poster said he saw a vendor scratching his anus in public. Not his pants. Or his back side. He said Arshol. I said that was a falsehood. Thats all. Nothing about Western or European food safety standards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only time I will not buy meat from the market here in Chumphon is on the days that meat is not slaughtered, the meat is often not stored in a coolroom over night, brought meat once in Lang Suan on a no slaughter day, the meat stank of amonia, so didn't even get to eat it, just tossed it and learnt from the experience. Nothing wrong with buying meat from the market otherwise, at least its not stored for weeks after slaughter like back home, it is actually fresh here, killed on the day, never been sick from meat purchased at the market.

Google "aging beef" if you want to be well informed about the process. If you would rather your home spun ideas; don't. Up to you.

Yes, aging beef does provide a more tender cut, but things such as cool rooms and cold rooms are simply not available in most places in Thailand, so the aging process is pretty well out of the question, and since the majority of Thais do not eat beef, but prefer pork, chicken or fish and also do not have the facilities at home to store meat for any period of time. There is beef available in the markets, but I rarely see more than one or two stalls selling it, and since there are no cool or cold storage facilities available it is butchered fresh that day.

I lived in Asia a long time ago. Way back when I never ate a chicken or duck I didn't see alive. Fish the same. Still not a bad rule of thumb some places. Beef in Thailand? I never eat it. My kids would always freak out when I picked out the live ducks for dinner.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only time I will not buy meat from the market here in Chumphon is on the days that meat is not slaughtered, the meat is often not stored in a coolroom over night, brought meat once in Lang Suan on a no slaughter day, the meat stank of amonia, so didn't even get to eat it, just tossed it and learnt from the experience. Nothing wrong with buying meat from the market otherwise, at least its not stored for weeks after slaughter like back home, it is actually fresh here, killed on the day, never been sick from meat purchased at the market.

Google "aging beef" if you want to be well informed about the process. If you would rather your home spun ideas; don't. Up to you.

Yes, aging beef does provide a more tender cut, but things such as cool rooms and cold rooms are simply not available in most places in Thailand, so the aging process is pretty well out of the question, and since the majority of Thais do not eat beef, but prefer pork, chicken or fish and also do not have the facilities at home to store meat for any period of time. There is beef available in the markets, but I rarely see more than one or two stalls selling it, and since there are no cool or cold storage facilities available it is butchered fresh that day.

I lived in Asia a long time ago. Way back when I never ate a chicken or duck I didn't see alive. Fish the same. Still not a bad rule of thumb some places. Beef in Thailand? I never eat it. My kids would always freak out when I picked out the live ducks for dinner.

Done that a couple of times on my wife's son's property up at Phato, he hates killing any of his animals, so he chooses the hen that isn't laying or the rooster that has limited fighting potential, he has caught wild chicken as well, but you've got to boil it for two or three days before you can put away the ban saw and cut it with a knife, no fat at all, not like domestic chickens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My best friend in Thailand is a typical conservative Brit. He refuses to eat Thai food, even in restaurants let alone on the street. Foodcourts are a no go, the spotlessly clean fruit vendors are anethema (he prefers tinned fruit in syrup), and he thinks the orange juice vendors on the street are filthy and prefers, instead, to gulp down saccarine sweet Gatorade type drinks or sweetened juice cartons.

He's petrified of what he sees poor food standards.

Which is ironic given his diet comprises tinned meat such as spam, ham and processed cheese sandwiches and the occasional yoghurt.

Needless to say he is rapidly becoming very fat and rather sickly.

A trait of character more common than not amongst the I don't like it here yet insist upon residing here crowd.

Bizarre. Backward.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Road side stalls, in the middle of know where, no toilet

Vendor needs to use the facilities behind a tree

No place to wash hands, does he :

Close the shop because his hands are dirty?

Or continue as normal handling food ?

Its not anti-thai, its just the reality of it, in Many countries sub standard or no health standards are practiced

That is just silly. There is always water at road side stands. They wash things. They drink water. Thais are water freaks. There is water everywhere. Maybe you are talking about India. Thais are very clean people. Tell us exactly where you saw a Thai vendor scratching his arshol. An Arshol is a very specific organ and occupies a very specific place on the body. Thais are also modest. What vendor would show you his or her arshol? Time to admit it. You were making things up. You have never seen this in Thailand. And also tell us if it is a common occurrence. Where do you see vendors scratching their arshols every day?

if you think thailands hygiene practices are up to western standards ,i dont know what part of the west you came from ........

in europe ,its ILLEGAL to work in a food prep area ,without a hair-net ,hands must be washed and THEN GLOVED and ear rings ,nose rings ,

spots ,pimples ,coldsores must be covered with a plaster before you go near the food

Anyone who thinks all this happens in the average thailand food place has a wealth of no idea! smile.png

No we're saying such an extreme level of hygienic sterility is over-the-moon crazy unnecessary and actually unhealthy because it prevents the immune system from receiving the stress it needs to get and remain strong.

It's very good for you to get the occasional booger or sheep's dags in your food.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Road side stalls, in the middle of know where, no toilet

Vendor needs to use the facilities behind a tree

No place to wash hands, does he :

Close the shop because his hands are dirty?

Or continue as normal handling food ?

Its not anti-thai, its just the reality of it, in Many countries sub standard or no health standards are practiced

That is just silly. There is always water at road side stands. They wash things. They drink water. Thais are water freaks. There is water everywhere. Maybe you are talking about India. Thais are very clean people. Tell us exactly where you saw a Thai vendor scratching his arshol. An Arshol is a very specific organ and occupies a very specific place on the body. Thais are also modest. What vendor would show you his or her arshol? Time to admit it. You were making things up. You have never seen this in Thailand. And also tell us if it is a common occurrence. Where do you see vendors scratching their arshols every day?

if you think thailands hygiene practices are up to western standards ,i dont know what part of the west you came from ........

in europe ,its ILLEGAL to work in a food prep area ,without a hair-net ,hands must be washed and THEN GLOVED and ear rings ,nose rings ,

spots ,pimples ,coldsores must be covered with a plaster before you go near the food

Anyone who thinks all this happens in the average thailand food place has a wealth of no idea! smile.png

No we're saying such an extreme level of hygienic sterility is over-the-moon crazy unnecessary and actually unhealthy because it prevents the immune system from receiving the stress it needs to get and remain strong.

It's very good for you to get the occasional booger or sheep's dags in your food.

i agree ,thhere is absolutely no need for a lot of the overkill regarding safety in the west

i remember we used to eat fish and chips from newspaper ,nobody in the chipshop wore hairnets and cough masks so they were unable to breath directly on the food :)

we all ate it and were all still here and old people in my family lived to their 80-90s in a generation where the average home didnt have a refridgerator :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good job you don't go to Rannong, they sit in the meat with a fag in there mouths with rats running around.people pick up what they want and disregard the rest.This is Thailand, get use to it. maybe us westerners are to sterile for our own good.

maybe you are too negative for everyones' good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Road side stalls, in the middle of know where, no toilet

Vendor needs to use the facilities behind a tree

No place to wash hands, does he :

Close the shop because his hands are dirty?

Or continue as normal handling food ?

Its not anti-thai, its just the reality of it, in Many countries sub standard or no health standards are practiced

What some do and my old tg's family did when we had no water to spare but wanted to eat sticky rice and food was to grag an ice-cube, rub it between your hands and, as the ice melts, it cleans your hands also ... then usually throw the ice-cube in a pot plant ... worked a treat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nobody said that, wana.

There is a good argument that the west's hygiene standards have become so stringent that they have weakened the average westerners immune system. We have become so sanitised in the west that we have forgotten that meat comes from killing pigs and cows and instead think it somehow is created in air-sealed plastic packaging.

I buy meat from wet markets all the time. I eat on the street at every opportunity.

I've been sick from food once in 8-9 years. After eating at the Subway on soi 7/1 (sorry Greg).

Quite correct bendix. Many years ago I worked in an area which had a voluntary women's kitchen providing sandwiches for lunch. They were super cheap and prepared by hand by the ladies.

This was banned because they hadn't all got the time to attend various training courses. Now the same shop sells prepacked sandwiches which are routinely stale and tasteless for around six times the price.

I'm glad I was only passing and can now pass....

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So...has anyone come up with any scientific documentation of the numbers that have fallen ill?

Foreign or local.

No but .......

When I first came here years ago the sight of what the OP is describing worried me.

Also coming from the US & going to the Thai village markets to buy meats made me worry.

After all we are told back home to not cross contaminate between chicken & pork juices etc.

Yet they are chopping on the same block of wood

Back home they will not even use the same carving machines to cut both pork & fowl

Yet here we see it daily in villages & probably if we look we see it in major markets too.

Yet I have not had so much as a stomach upset in all this time. Then again I rarely get upset

in the US from food either.

But it does make me wonder if our rules & regs back home are due to the fact that much of the meats we eat has actually been

dead for weeks/months before we buy them & are pumped up with chemicals that keep them edible/store-able.

Perhaps those are actually the reactions? The meats in the village are usually slaughtered that morning

Dunno smile.png

Just something I have wondered about at times.

It costs money to store meat. Space, utilities to name just two expenses. The longer the meat is stored, for example dry aging the more expensive it is. Dry aged meat is 100% and more above wet aged meat. All good meat is aged at least a few days or the taste is horrid. Like Thai beef. Most good beef is aged sealed in plastic at least 27 days (not the steak but the whole primal cut).

Thailand does not know how to slaughter or age beef and that is one reason beef has such a bad flavor here. Beef has to be happy when it is killed or it tastes funny. Kind of a sour taste and very red color as opposed to a dark red.

Beef has a number of grades most of the good stuff goes only to restaurants the next grade down to grocery stores and down to pet food makers. From dry aged prime beef to commercial and cutter beef for canned stews.

So to speak specifically to beef killed that morning is not fit to eat. Same reason you hang a deer for a couple of days after you shoot it.

Pork and chicken are different.

never really understood the effect of hanging meat..what does it do? Think duck/geese are also hung?

I eat the killed that day beef from the market but usually a couple of days in the fridge first...tastes pretty good to me ..never did like the steaks which cut like butter ...especially that from Hawaii..has no ...something?.

Just me.... I like rough red wine and cheap scotch.

re the OP....think he would hate to see the life cycle of that meat before it gets handled by that fat chick with grubby hands

I think that a bigger danger is the veggies that have been sprayed?

Son visited me from Dubai couple of years back ..would not consider eating anything that had been not film wrapped on a Styrofoam tray....lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So...has anyone come up with any scientific documentation of the numbers that have fallen ill?

Foreign or local.

No but .......

When I first came here years ago the sight of what the OP is describing worried me.

Also coming from the US & going to the Thai village markets to buy meats made me worry.

After all we are told back home to not cross contaminate between chicken & pork juices etc.

Yet they are chopping on the same block of wood

Back home they will not even use the same carving machines to cut both pork & fowl

Yet here we see it daily in villages & probably if we look we see it in major markets too.

Yet I have not had so much as a stomach upset in all this time. Then again I rarely get upset

in the US from food either.

But it does make me wonder if our rules & regs back home are due to the fact that much of the meats we eat has actually been

dead for weeks/months before we buy them & are pumped up with chemicals that keep them edible/store-able.

Perhaps those are actually the reactions? The meats in the village are usually slaughtered that morning

Dunno smile.png

Just something I have wondered about at times.

It costs money to store meat. Space, utilities to name just two expenses. The longer the meat is stored, for example dry aging the more expensive it is. Dry aged meat is 100% and more above wet aged meat. All good meat is aged at least a few days or the taste is horrid. Like Thai beef. Most good beef is aged sealed in plastic at least 27 days (not the steak but the whole primal cut).

Thailand does not know how to slaughter or age beef and that is one reason beef has such a bad flavor here. Beef has to be happy when it is killed or it tastes funny. Kind of a sour taste and very red color as opposed to a dark red.

Beef has a number of grades most of the good stuff goes only to restaurants the next grade down to grocery stores and down to pet food makers. From dry aged prime beef to commercial and cutter beef for canned stews.

So to speak specifically to beef killed that morning is not fit to eat. Same reason you hang a deer for a couple of days after you shoot it.

Pork and chicken are different.

never really understood the effect of hanging meat..what does it do? Think duck/geese are also hung?

I eat the killed that day beef from the market but usually a couple of days in the fridge first...tastes pretty good to me ..never did like the steaks which cut like butter ...especially that from Hawaii..has no ...something?.

Just me.... I like rough red wine and cheap scotch.

re the OP....think he would hate to see the life cycle of that meat before it gets handled by that fat chick with grubby hands

I think that a bigger danger is the veggies that have been sprayed?

Son visited me from Dubai couple of years back ..would not consider eating anything that had been not film wrapped on a Styrofoam tray....lol

As soon as an animal dies the natural enzymes in the meat begin to break down the connective tissue.

This process in the short term makes the muscle tender and flavorful. Cold slows the process; heat speeds it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hygiene must be a shock to some........ do you buy from a supermarket go early and all the meat is frozen, go late and things like chicken is going green and slimy..... Buy for the side of the road or local markets I do, other than all in plastic big bags and covered in flies always cheaper and fresher that Supermarkets........

Not so long ago used to live in Portugal, out in the sticks there as well, now Saturdays was meat delivery days, most places were the same nearest Village had a shop and Bar all in one, my local shop/bar Saturday the big bags of meat was delivered in big plastic sacks, each type of meat placed on the tables around the bar, local old men sat having a fag and drink at these tables........ Now order the meat you want for the week, the owner went to the door and got the block of wood [used as door stop] placed it on the table and cut you meat...... after jammed the knife back in the block and put it back on the floor to keep the door open, the local dogs then licked the block clean.. rest of the week the dogs used the block to pee on..

By the way lived in Portugal for 13 years, it was always the same even well after they joined the EU

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find it extraordinary that the people who criticise hygiene standards in Thailand regarding food, are likely the same people who have grown obese eating awful processed rubbish in the west for decades without caring two hoots how it was made, so long as it came in a brightly coloured plastic wrapper or with an upsize combo offer attached.

Have none of you read Fast Food Nation?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find it extraordinary that the people who criticise hygiene standards in Thailand regarding food, are likely the same people who have grown obese eating awful processed rubbish in the west for decades without caring two hoots how it was made, so long as it came in a brightly coloured plastic wrapper or with an upsize combo offer attached.

Have none of you read Fast Food Nation?

true that :)

19167.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find it extraordinary that the people who criticise hygiene standards in Thailand regarding food, are likely the same people who have grown obese eating awful processed rubbish in the west for decades without caring two hoots how it was made, so long as it came in a brightly coloured plastic wrapper or with an upsize combo offer attached.

Have none of you read Fast Food Nation?

Second that! For starters, Google" pink slime"

I like to add that it would never enter my mind buying anything from those open piles of meat at the tescos or makros of this world.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like to add that it would never enter my mind buying anything from those open piles of meat at the tescos or makros of this world.

I do the same...Always buy the tray wrapped portions in the fridge section. I know maybe when wrapped may have not been perfect either but I figure I bettered my odds a bit wink.png

Edited by flying
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.