Restaurant Hygiene Standards In Thailand

[klubex99]

Been here for almost 4 years now, and I have come to the conclusion that Thai restaurants, street food vendors and my digestive system are no match made in heaven.

All I can put it down to is the lack of consideration of hygiene plus very insufficient training in food safety standards.

I almost always end up with the squits after eating food prepared by a Thai. I don't know exactly what it is. Maybe the rat, fly and cockroach infested kitchens. Or the terrible sanitation. Lets face it how many times have you been in a small cheap restaurant (and sometimes not cheap) and went to the toilet to find no soap or anything to dry the hands, maybe a manky old towel that has not been washed for weeks. Knowing that the people preparing your food are using the same toilets as the customer? I have seen this heaps of times, and I totally lose my appetite.

I do love Thai food and invested in a luxury 'indoor' kitchen at home, which we keep pristine clean at all times, and my wife and I will cook many Thai meals, and I never get sick once. But once I venture out to a Thai eatery, the next day I am hanging on to the toilet for dear life. My wife also suffers the same.

I just arrived back from Nepal a few days ago, and the contrast is astounding. We only ate local food for every meal for a whole week and I have to say that no matter where we ate, or at what budget level, the toilets provided in eateries was that of a high class hotel, and even outside the big cities. They seem to have a big focus on food standards and safety compared to their Thai counterparts. We never had an adverse effect at any time during our stay, and Nepal is a much poorer country than LOS.

The very day I returned to LOS, the first meal we ate, me and the wife were back fighting over the toilet.

I do know that very few Thais observe the food safety act, my wife says that they see it as building up a resistance to food germs. But my view is that, if everyone practiced good hygiene standards, then they wouldn't need to build up a resistance to e coli or salmonella. Prevention is better than cure.

Anyway, I am done with them now... I only will eat in farang run restaurants, because I never seem to get ill in those, I suppose they pass on their food hygiene knowledge, the toilets are usually stocked with soap at least The Thais can continue to do their thing, and I will do mine.

Rant over..... now hit me with your best.

Edited September 23, 2013 by klubex99

[Shot]

Standards?

[HeijoshinCool]

Training?

[canman]

There's a Thai food safety act?

[HeijoshinCool]

I've walked into restaurants where the cook turned out to be the person who was:

clipping and scraping toenails;

popping zits in the motor scooter mirror;

de-licing hair friend;

scraping boogers;

picking ticks from her dog and .... well .... I didn't eat the soup.

But there are plenty of clean places. Just have to hunt them down. I do tend to avoid raw foods though, unless I know the place.

[klubex99]

There's a Thai food safety act?

Yes, but it is more of an advisory board rather than an action board.

They ought to bring in laws and enforce them like they have in western countries, seeing as these businesses are serving food to millions of western people.

They have a course that food operators can attend and they get a certificate if they pass, and can display it in their restaurant/eatery. But I have never seen a single one. They should make it mandatory that any business selling food to the public has a certificate on display or they can not trade. They should send round inspectors to see that standards are being maintained, and they should revoke a certificate if there are failings.

It's not a major inconvenience to put this system in place.

[klubex99]

I've walked into restaurants where the cook turned out to be the person who was:

clipping and scraping toenails;

popping zits in the motor scooter mirror;

de-licing hair friend;

scraping boogers;

picking ticks from her dog and .... well .... I didn't eat the soup.

But there are plenty of clean places. Just have to hunt them down. I do tend to avoid raw foods though, unless I know the place.

Funny you should say that. My wife pointed out a few weeks ago that she saw the owner clipping his toenails, and then got up and started preparing food. Luckily for me, I was not eating there. The wife was.

I have watched a cook chopping chicken and pork on the same chopping board, then just wiped it over with a dirty rag and proceed to slice a tomato on it for a salad.

They seem to have no idea just how dangerous that is. It will get you closed down in a heartbeat in the west, and would possibly make the local press, just to make sure your business is ruined.

[GuestHouse]

My experience has been with over 14 years living inThailand neither, I nor anyone in my family has had food poisining more than 3 or 4 times.

Given the number meals eaten in a wide range of restaurants, at least one meal eaten out of home per day, I have to conclude hygene is not a concern.

Eat out that often back home I'd expect no better occursnce of sickness.

The one concern I have with food in Thailand is the presence of agro chemicals and agro antibiotics. A real concern that people oight to get better informed on.

[Mighty Mouse]

I've seen a food cart, laden with chicken kebabs, racing for position on Walking Street, Pattaya. A whole tray fell onto the roadway. Each one was picked up and placed back onto the serving tray for selling.

Another night time food cart had the small light globe hanging over the food trays. The globe burst, sending shards of glass into the food. The seller replaced the globe and went right on selling the food....with a little bit of extra crunch for no extra charge.

I've seen food cart operators cooking their chicken over coals in the back streets of Pattaya, in preparation for the night time trade, Dogs were licking the chickens as they cooked.

[klubex99]

My experience has been with over 14 years living inThailand neither, I nor anyone in my family has had food poisining more than 3 or 4 times.

Given the number meals eaten in a wide range of restaurants, at least one meal eaten out of home per day, I have to conclude hygene is not a concern.

Eat out that often back home I'd expect no better occursnce of sickness.

The one concern I have with food in Thailand is the presence of agro chemicals and agro antibiotics. A real concern that people oight to get better informed on.

Maybe I am intolerant to a common factor in Thai cooking.

But we use almost all the same things in our kitchen, and I am fine, my wife seems to be the same as me.

In Nepal, there was no such problem. I can only put it down to bad practices. I have had rotten meat served to me on more than one occasion. I could smell it each time before i even took a bite. My wife had a pork chop that smelled so purified that i could smell it from the other side of the table. I was seriously pissed off, because they must have known it was totally off, the smell would have been a lot worse before cooking. But rather than throw it out or give it to the dog, they chose to serve it to their customer. That is by far the worst experience I ever was exposed to in any restaurant in any country I have every traveled (23 so far).

The whole thing seems to be a problem with attitude. It's a pity because I really like Thai food.

[Gsxrnz]

Been here three years. When in Thailand I have NEVER had what one would call a firm/solid bowel motion - in fact quite the opposite.

Every morning at 7:07 (+- 3 minutes) my bowels instruct me to proceed poste haste to the toilet, whereupon all manner of bacteria is evacuated.

When I go home to Farangland I usually suffer from chronic constipation after about 3 days which takes a week to stabilise.

On returning to LOS, I get the squirts 24 hours following consumption of the first morsel of food, which in 3 days recalibrates to the 7:07 wake up call.

Somehow I don't think it's just the change in climate that impacts my bowels to that extent, so my lower intestines are in agreement with the OP - food safety standards in LOS are ass-ininely non existent .

Edited September 23, 2013 by Gsxrnz

[rct99q]

Do you use 6-8 tablespoons of MSG in your cooking or RotDee (a msg flavor enhancer) found in all foods here? I have found the only thing that gets to me is the msg. Otherwise I suggest your issues are in your mind. You believe you should be getting sick as kitchens and cooking standards are not what you need.

[klubex99]

Do you use 6-8 tablespoons of MSG in your cooking or RotDee (a msg flavor enhancer) found in all foods here? I have found the only thing that gets to me is the msg. Otherwise I suggest your issues are in your mind. You believe you should be getting sick as kitchens and cooking standards are not what you need.

No I never use MSG. But I do eat things at home that contain MSG and I was brought up eating Chinese takeaways in the UK and that was loaded with MSG, and it never bothered me. Maybe I have developed an intolerance over the recent years. The MSG thing is plausible but improbable. The theory of it being all in the mind is probably the biggest load of crap I have heard in a week on this forum.

[Gsxrnz]

Do you use 6-8 tablespoons of MSG in your cooking or RotDee (a msg flavor enhancer) found in all foods here? I have found the only thing that gets to me is the msg. Otherwise I suggest your issues are in your mind. You believe you should be getting sick as kitchens and cooking standards are not what you need.

Let's not turn this into an MSG thread - I'm neutral on MSG, but you have to be joking if you think food safety standards here are safe. Even the stench of "off" meat products can be smelled at the big supermarkets that can't be named.

As for the open air markets. A western food hygienist would have kittens if they were asked to monitor the standards.

As a matter of fact some friends and I discussed this very issue recently after one poor sod was confined to his condo for 5 days with "chronic everything syndrome". He emerged a pale comparison of his former self. He put it down to some dodgy BBQ chicken bought from the market. We hypothesized the potential lifecycle of said chicken:

Day 1: Killed (un-hygienically) and maybe transported to market to be displayed in the open air with no refrigeration or insect control other than the plastic bag on a stick waved by a 6 year old. Or it might sit around the chicken farmers yard for a day before being transported to market. Regardless, it's sitting in a tray of floating salmonella juices that smell putrid even to the hardiest soul. And all the Thais pick through it with bare (unwashed and been to the bog three times already) hands, wiping said hands on a rag that has never been washed and is stiff with bacteria.

Day 2: Wasn't sold on day one, but maybe (or maybe not) stored in an box of ice, along with pork, prawns, livers, fish, and lord knows what else. To be displayed yet again in the open air as on day one.

Day 3: Wasn't sold on Day two, but still good to go. Wipe off any blow-fly larvae.

Day 4: Wasn't sold on day three and vendor thinks maybe it might be getting a bit dodgy after 3 or maybe 4 whole days sitting unrefrigerated (never mind the 2-3 days of open air 32 degree plus 2-3 nights at say 4 degrees in the icebox), so decides to either sell to a fried/BBQ chicken vendor on the cheap, or fry it himself for re-sale. Maybe it will be sold, maybe not. If not sold, no need to store in an icebox over night because now it's cooked.

Day 4: Fancy some chicken on a stick and some khaow-niau anybody?

Edited September 23, 2013 by Gsxrnz

[klubex99]

Do you use 6-8 tablespoons of MSG in your cooking or RotDee (a msg flavor enhancer) found in all foods here? I have found the only thing that gets to me is the msg. Otherwise I suggest your issues are in your mind. You believe you should be getting sick as kitchens and cooking standards are not what you need.

Let's not turn this into an MSG thread - I'm neutral on MSG, but you have to be joking if you think food safety standards here are safe. Even the stench of "off" meat products can be smelled at the big supermarkets that can't be named.

As for the open air markets. A western food hygienist would have kittens if they were asked to monitor the standards.

As a matter of fact some friends and I discussed this very issue recently after one poor sod was confined to his condo for 5 days with "chronic everything syndrome". He emerged a pale comparison of his former self. He put it down to some dodgy BBQ chicken bought from the market. We hypothesized the potential lifecycle of said chicken:

Day 1: Killed (un-hygienically) and maybe transported to market to be displayed in the open air with no refrigeration or insect control other than the plastic bag on a stick waved by a 6 year old. Or it might sit around the chicken farmers yard for a day before being transported to market. Regardless, it's sitting in a tray of floating salmonella juices that smell putrid even to the hardiest soul. And all the Thais pick through it with bare (unwashed and been to the bog three times already) hands, wiping said hands on a rag that has never been washed and is stiff with bacteria.

Day 2: Wasn't sold on day one, but maybe (or maybe not) stored in an box of ice, along with pork, prawns, livers, fish, and lord knows what else. To be displayed yet again in the open air as on day one.

Day 3: Wasn't sold on Day two, but still good to go. Wipe off any blow-fly larvae.

Day 4: Wasn't sold on day three and vendor thinks maybe it might be getting a bit dodgy after 3 or maybe 4 whole days sitting unrefrigerated (never mind the 2-3 days of open air 32 degree plus 2-3 nights at say 4 degrees in the icebox), so decides to either sell to a fried/BBQ chicken vendor on the cheap, or fry it himself for re-sale. Maybe it will be sold, maybe not. If not sold, no need to store in an icebox over night because now it's cooked.

Day 4: Fancy some chicken on a stick and some khaow-niau anybody?

Whatever the lifecycle. They would never throw it away. That is part of the problem. Even been to quite an expensive restaurant where you expect it to be different and took one bite out of a burger, and I almost hurled. They must know when something is bad. Do they care? Not in their nature. Making a sale and losing that cistomer for life is much better than throwing out 1KG of rancid burger meat.

[Gsxrnz]

Do you use 6-8 tablespoons of MSG in your cooking or RotDee (a msg flavor enhancer) found in all foods here? I have found the only thing that gets to me is the msg. Otherwise I suggest your issues are in your mind. You believe you should be getting sick as kitchens and cooking standards are not what you need.

Let's not turn this into an MSG thread - I'm neutral on MSG, but you have to be joking if you think food safety standards here are safe. Even the stench of "off" meat products can be smelled at the big supermarkets that can't be named.

As for the open air markets. A western food hygienist would have kittens if they were asked to monitor the standards.

As a matter of fact some friends and I discussed this very issue recently after one poor sod was confined to his condo for 5 days with "chronic everything syndrome". He emerged a pale comparison of his former self. He put it down to some dodgy BBQ chicken bought from the market. We hypothesized the potential lifecycle of said chicken:

Day 1: Killed (un-hygienically) and maybe transported to market to be displayed in the open air with no refrigeration or insect control other than the plastic bag on a stick waved by a 6 year old. Or it might sit around the chicken farmers yard for a day before being transported to market. Regardless, it's sitting in a tray of floating salmonella juices that smell putrid even to the hardiest soul. And all the Thais pick through it with bare (unwashed and been to the bog three times already) hands, wiping said hands on a rag that has never been washed and is stiff with bacteria.

Day 2: Wasn't sold on day one, but maybe (or maybe not) stored in an box of ice, along with pork, prawns, livers, fish, and lord knows what else. To be displayed yet again in the open air as on day one.

Day 3: Wasn't sold on Day two, but still good to go. Wipe off any blow-fly larvae.

Day 4: Wasn't sold on day three and vendor thinks maybe it might be getting a bit dodgy after 3 or maybe 4 whole days sitting unrefrigerated (never mind the 2-3 days of open air 32 degree plus 2-3 nights at say 4 degrees in the icebox), so decides to either sell to a fried/BBQ chicken vendor on the cheap, or fry it himself for re-sale. Maybe it will be sold, maybe not. If not sold, no need to store in an icebox over night because now it's cooked.

Day 4: Fancy some chicken on a stick and some khaow-niau anybody?

Whatever the lifecycle. They would never throw it away. That is part of the problem. Even been to quite an expensive restaurant where you expect it to be different and took one bite out of a burger, and I almost hurled. They must know when something is bad. Do they care? Not in their nature. Making a sale and losing that cistomer for life is much better than throwing out 1KG of rancid burger meat.

Klubex - you've got that right. I had a steak once and the first piece tasted a bit strange but was camouflaged by pepper sauce. Had a second forkful and things were decidedly not right. Scraped off the sauce and put the plate under a table light - the <deleted> meat was green! I like my steak mature but this was extreme. Haven't been back to that place again - but the worst feeling was knowing that I'd eaten there dozens of times before and always thought the place looked reasonably well managed.

[krisb]

I agree and it's very off putting. Lets compare Australia for a minute. Here the health department do random checks(no health department in Thailand ). Anyhow they have closed down top of the line 5star silver service restraunts here in Australia for filthy kitchens. This means it makes no difference if it's lets say the Hilton 5star or Bob's grill up the road.

Best bet is eat at home.

[kokesaat]

If the first taste is off, why take a second? And if I ever go to a restaurant where anything tastes off, I never go back. I rarely eat food from street carts. But I frequent a handful or two of Thai restaurants- noodles, duck, vietnamese, lahb, chinese, made-to-order - all without problem. My wife buys 99% of veggies and meats, including butchered chicken, from a village market. I eat what she makes and it's delicious. My wife washes everything thoroughly before cooking.....some restaurants don't. Street vendors are at a disadvantage because they generally don't have an ample supply of fresh water available.

That all said, in the 18 years we've been here, I had one bout of food poisoning and my wife another. Both required 2 days in the hospital. During that same period of time, our daughter who lives in the US has had 2 bouts of food poisoning.

I do believe some people are more prone to illness than others.....back in AF days, I and my friend would eat kowpot at the same restaurant at the same time. I'd do fine, he'd get the squirts.

But before I'd condemn all restaurants as unclean, I'd reevaluate where/what I eat. Seafood of any sort from a street vendor? No way. All you can korean barbecues where people pick through the foods for 89 baht, not for me. Grilled chicken that's been cooked and sitting on the stick for an undetermined amount of time, not for me.

Somtom of any sort, I can handle it....but I know lots of people who can't.

One of my favorite quick dishes is kowpot boo (crab). The owner and his wife sit at a giant chopping block in the front of the restaurant. As patrons are eating, they're smashing crab claws and picking out the meat with their hands. It's never pass the test back in the US.....but their food is delicious.....never had a problem.

MSG, Rotdee, sauces......no problem. The best microwave popcorn is made with a generous dash of pork rotdee.

[Bluetongue]

I was at the local market one day, and saw a dog drag a lump of pork off the vendor's table, after a couple of mouthfuls the vendor noticed and the dog was chased away. Lump of pork was picked up brushed off and put back for sale.

Having said that most of the food I eat comes from either the market or Makro/Tesco and some times I'm trotting to the bathroom, but certainly not regularly like once a week or something. The restaurant I eat in is basic but clean and purchases of meats are made daily and prepared on different surfaces. I think many people probably have a greater tolerance to bugs than some others.

Food inspectors? we should be careful about wishing for things here, adding another layer of bureaucracy and its attendant corruption may not be the answer let them work it out themselves

[kannot]

My experience has been with over 14 years living inThailand neither, I nor anyone in my family has had food poisining more than 3 or 4 times.

Given the number meals eaten in a wide range of restaurants, at least one meal eaten out of home per day, I have to conclude hygene is not a concern.

Eat out that often back home I'd expect no better occursnce of sickness.

The one concern I have with food in Thailand is the presence of agro chemicals and agro antibiotics. A real concern that people oight to get better informed on.

Round near me out in the sticks of Prahuap all I see is shops PUSHING these chemicals like crazy and the shop owners getting very rich with incentives form the manufacturers, the woman near me said she had been given 3 iphone 4's and was making over 200k a month profit on sales of 1 million baht every month.

Its not even a big shop by any means, in fact she is opening another shop soon.

For sure Thai soil will be poisoned to death along with the peopl,e using said chemicals with no protection...............flip flops dont do much for sure when spraying gramoxone

[ETatBKK]

friend of mine is managing restaurants in the home land. while he was here, he suggested follow :

'as long as you know what you eat, and you won't end up in the hospital, then don't look at the floor, don't look at the ceiling, don't ask how does it make, just enjoy the food in front of you'

[malcyx]

failure to prepare is preparing for fail .. this is what your profile says ...lol

took you 4 years to decide to eat in ferrang food joints, are you kidding us ...

always someone looking to instantly westernise poor countries ..proper training = baht , education - baht , poor people = no baht..

if you choose to live in a poor country expect poor standards .

I eat thai food all the time when im their, occasional ferrang restaurant , funny the only time ive

been served raw chicken , and I mean raw , it was practically trying to fly off my plate

n this was in a ferrang restaurant ..

maybe its the toxins in the air , after all your surrounded by passing buses , tractors, lorries , cars , motorbikes

when eating at some of these places .. all using various grades of fuel n emitting loads of shit ..

[GuestHouse]

Been here three years. When in Thailand I have NEVER had what one would call a firm/solid bowel motion - in fact quite the opposite.

Every morning at 7:07 (+- 3 minutes) my bowels instruct me to proceed poste haste to the toilet, whereupon all manner of bacteria is evacuated.

When I go home to Farangland I usually suffer from chronic constipation after about 3 days which takes a week to stabilise.

On returning to LOS, I get the squirts 24 hours following consumption of the first morsel of food, which in 3 days recalibrates to the 7:07 wake up call.

Somehow I don't think it's just the change in climate that impacts my bowels to that extent, so my lower intestines are in agreement with the OP - food safety standards in LOS are ass-ininely non existent .

And there in lies the reason why expats who have been demobbed are referred to as 'Farting with Confidence".

[Beetlejuice]

Thailand does have health and safety laws but these are not taken seriously and rarely enforced.

Over the years I`ve witnessed some deplorable conditions of hygiene in Thai eating establishments. Filth, dirt and vermin everywhere, staff using bare hands while preparing and cooking the food, filthy tables for preparing the food, sneezing in the food, cooked and raw pork and meats left out in the open swarming with flies.

So far I have been lucky and have not suffered food poisoning, only because I have experience and cautious of where and what I eat.

Thai noodle stall and restaurant owners don`t give a rat’s behind about hygiene regulations and clean practices. What does concern them more is reputation, especially if mostly catering to the local clientele. If customers get sick after eating in their establishments, then the word gets round, and the customers will avoid the place, then it goes out of business.

In Thailand whatever we do, we just have to be cautious and a bit more choosey, as most of it is based on a hope and a prayer that the worst won`t happen.

[Berkshire]

If the first taste is off, why take a second? And if I ever go to a restaurant where anything tastes off, I never go back. I rarely eat food from street carts. But I frequent a handful or two of Thai restaurants- noodles, duck, vietnamese, lahb, chinese, made-to-order - all without problem. My wife buys 99% of veggies and meats, including butchered chicken, from a village market. I eat what she makes and it's delicious. My wife washes everything thoroughly before cooking.....some restaurants don't. Street vendors are at a disadvantage because they generally don't have an ample supply of fresh water available.

That all said, in the 18 years we've been here, I had one bout of food poisoning and my wife another. Both required 2 days in the hospital. During that same period of time, our daughter who lives in the US has had 2 bouts of food poisoning.

I do believe some people are more prone to illness than others.....back in AF days, I and my friend would eat kowpot at the same restaurant at the same time. I'd do fine, he'd get the squirts.

But before I'd condemn all restaurants as unclean, I'd reevaluate where/what I eat. Seafood of any sort from a street vendor? No way. All you can korean barbecues where people pick through the foods for 89 baht, not for me. Grilled chicken that's been cooked and sitting on the stick for an undetermined amount of time, not for me.

Somtom of any sort, I can handle it....but I know lots of people who can't.

One of my favorite quick dishes is kowpot boo (crab). The owner and his wife sit at a giant chopping block in the front of the restaurant. As patrons are eating, they're smashing crab claws and picking out the meat with their hands. It's never pass the test back in the US.....but their food is delicious.....never had a problem.

MSG, Rotdee, sauces......no problem. The best microwave popcorn is made with a generous dash of pork rotdee.

Some good, common sense stuff here. I eat out practically every day in Thailand. I'll get the runs maybe once or twice a year, serious food poisoning maybe once every 4 or 5 years. Nothing to get overly freaked out about.

As for the USA, I've worked in many restaurants in America back in my high school/college days. From ultra-posh, to pizzerias, to fast food. It's really better that you guys don't know what goes on back in the kitchens. Food being dropped and put back on the plate, spitting in food (usually involves pain-in-the-ass customers), out of date stuff being served, dishes not washed in proper temp, food not being stored properly, etc., etc. And Chinese restaurants? Even worse. Sure America has food inspectors....but they're rarely ever around.

Food sanitation obviously is important and Thailand can/should do better. But if you think that every restaurant in your home country is practicing proper food safety 100% of the time, you're freakin dreaming. If it really worries you all that much, then you should never, ever eat in a place where you yourself is not doing the cooking. Applies to Thailand, USA, and pretty much every place else on the planet.

[impulse]

What does concern them more is reputation, especially if mostly catering to the local clientele. If customers get sick after eating in their establishments, then the word gets round, and the customers will avoid the place, then it goes out of business.

...or parks up the sidewalk a couple of blocks and starts all over.

[northernjohn]

My experience has been with over 14 years living inThailand neither, I nor anyone in my family has had food poisining more than 3 or 4 times.

Given the number meals eaten in a wide range of restaurants, at least one meal eaten out of home per day, I have to conclude hygene is not a concern.

Eat out that often back home I'd expect no better occursnce of sickness.

The one concern I have with food in Thailand is the presence of agro chemicals and agro antibiotics. A real concern that people oight to get better informed on.

Reminds me of a semi tour to Mexico when I was living in Canada. We were given a talk on water. The guide explained that if the ice had a hole in it that meant it was made from purified water and we should always use bottled water.

He went on to say that the water was OK for the Mexicans because they were used to the microbes and what not in it.

He went on to say that if he was to come to Canada he would probably get sick of the water because it had different microbes and what not in it that we were used to and he was not. Made sense to me as I have a hard time believing there could be that many Mexicans on the street every day in Mazatlan with out a toilet on every corner If there water was so bad.

Some people have strong stomachs but they are just unable to adjust to other environments. In my three years I have had the occasion twice to over use the toilet bowel. I don't consider that a bad deal at all.

[northernjohn]

If the first taste is off, why take a second? And if I ever go to a restaurant where anything tastes off, I never go back. I rarely eat food from street carts. But I frequent a handful or two of Thai restaurants- noodles, duck, vietnamese, lahb, chinese, made-to-order - all without problem. My wife buys 99% of veggies and meats, including butchered chicken, from a village market. I eat what she makes and it's delicious. My wife washes everything thoroughly before cooking.....some restaurants don't. Street vendors are at a disadvantage because they generally don't have an ample supply of fresh water available.

That all said, in the 18 years we've been here, I had one bout of food poisoning and my wife another. Both required 2 days in the hospital. During that same period of time, our daughter who lives in the US has had 2 bouts of food poisoning.

I do believe some people are more prone to illness than others.....back in AF days, I and my friend would eat kowpot at the same restaurant at the same time. I'd do fine, he'd get the squirts.

But before I'd condemn all restaurants as unclean, I'd reevaluate where/what I eat. Seafood of any sort from a street vendor? No way. All you can korean barbecues where people pick through the foods for 89 baht, not for me. Grilled chicken that's been cooked and sitting on the stick for an undetermined amount of time, not for me.

Somtom of any sort, I can handle it....but I know lots of people who can't.

One of my favorite quick dishes is kowpot boo (crab). The owner and his wife sit at a giant chopping block in the front of the restaurant. As patrons are eating, they're smashing crab claws and picking out the meat with their hands. It's never pass the test back in the US.....but their food is delicious.....never had a problem.

MSG, Rotdee, sauces......no problem. The best microwave popcorn is made with a generous dash of pork rotdee.

Some good, common sense stuff here. I eat out practically every day in Thailand. I'll get the runs maybe once or twice a year, serious food poisoning maybe once every 4 or 5 years. Nothing to get overly freaked out about.

As for the USA, I've worked in many restaurants in America back in my high school/college days. From ultra-posh, to pizzerias, to fast food. It's really better that you guys don't know what goes on back in the kitchens. Food being dropped and put back on the plate, spitting in food (usually involves pain-in-the-ass customers), out of date stuff being served, dishes not washed in proper temp, food not being stored properly, etc., etc. And Chinese restaurants? Even worse. Sure America has food inspectors....but they're rarely ever around.

Food sanitation obviously is important and Thailand can/should do better. But if you think that every restaurant in your home country is practicing proper food safety 100% of the time, you're freakin dreaming. If it really worries you all that much, then you should never, ever eat in a place where you yourself is not doing the cooking. Applies to Thailand, USA, and pretty much every place else on the planet.

agree 100%

In my youth I had occasion to help strip out kitchens to be remodeled in 5 star hotels. If these people could see what I have seen in 5 star hotels in America they would never eat out. But on the other hand the much maligned McDonald's is one of the cleanest places you can find for food preparation areas in North America I would presume they try to keep the same standards here. I think a lot of it is in are minds. I hear a lot of negativity about McDonald's but I don't hear people talking about getting food poising there or the runs.

I imagine I will hear a lot about it now. I have planted the seed.

[TheSpade]

I see a lot of questionable cooking and hygiene practices out here but I try not to think about it too much and just get on with eating.

The restaurant in my apartment block prides it's self on being clean and hygienic but I popped my head into the kitchen once and saw the chef chopping meat on the floor (I think there was a chopping board beneath the meat and the floor but not 100% sure - still!) and placing the knife on the floor before reusing it.

Some of the stuff I see street food vendors do is very dodgy. I put it out my mind and tuck in. Tastes damn good.

No major problems yet. Odd dose of the shits but nothing serious. No full blown food poisoning thankfully.

[BillyBobThai]

As for the dog licking the meat as it cooked, I have 3 dogs and get several kisses every day. Having laws and inspectors would only cost the vendors more tea money. TIT