Restaurant Hygiene Standards In Thailand

[ghworker2010]

The worst offenders are the restaurants around the ghetto of KSR. I was in one last week and sat down. The table cloth was so dirty and I asked the owner if he had another one. No.... I looked around and all the table cloths were disgusting. Then I looked at the walls inside the restaurant and it was disgusting. I started to think about the kitchen and got up to find a cleaner joint.

I often get sick as well from food here. Best to be selective

[TheSpade]

A lot of the street vendors in the Kowsarn area are a bit iffy. Most of the clientele comes and goes so they don't have to care about hygiene and cooking good food that will keep customers coming back.

Better to stick to places that has a loyal local crowd.. In theory should be better.

[Thai at Heart]

Msg intolerance.....

[arthurwait]

Went to some wanna be high end restaurant just outside Pattaya people think the view you can't see when dark is worth it. Run by a farang thai couple .

The waiters were their kids who spent the whole time picking their noses while delivering the food. Thankfully my dish never turned up after asking for it many times.

The Thai food turned up. Thai street food just half the amount at 4 times the price.

[Beetlejuice]

A good way to tell when the food is completely cooked, is when it stops trying to climb out of the pot.

[sustento]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Confidential-Adventures-Culinary-Underbelly/dp/0062231375

[Forethat]

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.

In Thailand you are exposed to a much higher risk of food and waterborne infections compared to Europe and USA. Seriously. MUCH higher.

Dont for a second believe anything else.

[sustento]

The only problems I have with food in Thailand is when it's western food cooked by Thais.

[Jay Sata]

I've just noticed a contradiction on this thread.

Restaurant Hygiene Standards Thailand

I've never found those words linked together before.

Have I missed something.

[cpofc]

The first Restaurant we owned in Australia, we walked straight into. We built that up until two of our thai female waitresses walked in one night and made us an offer we couldn't refuse. We took a year off and then went searching for another. We looked at all types of restaurants with an idea to convert them to Thai if they weren't already. I don't know how many we looked at but it was a hell of alot. All different nationailties - In multi-cultural Melbourne.

What I saw absolutely shocked me. I had no idea. Sometimes I would bump into my wife coming in the front door as I was walking back out. 30 Seconds would be all it took. FILTHY! Putrid!

My Dishwasher Repairman told me once that many was the time he refused to repair an appliance until the owner cleaned the place up! He would be too frightened to get down on the floor to check for faults etc.

Our two restaurants were never visited by a Health Inspector either before, or at anytime after we bought them. In fact, in Melbourne in the Mid 90s the Councils scaled back their Health Inspection Services and made it more self regulatory. Many former Local Government Inspectors set up businesses teaching Food Handling, Hygeine. The Government Introduced new legislation and compulsory Health Audits. By law the owners and operators or designated staff had to do Food Handling Courses and complete Health Audits. It all went crazy for a little while and alot of people made alot of money out of it. Then it all died a natural.

Thailand is very self regulatory, especially in and around Moo Baans etc. If the food makes people crook, word travels quickly and people simply do not eat there. They will soon go out of business or move on. Tourist areas for instance don't have a good reputation, with little in the way of regular customers and thousands of single visit passing trade.

Rule of thumb is eat at places where it is difficult to get a seat. But even then 'Worlds Best Practice' is not guaranteed.

10 years permanently here, I haven't had a dose of gastro once.

[stickylies]

never been sick (had some minor issues once or twice but never sick as in "infected"). i never go to farang restaurants. street stalls only, but mostly to the same ones. i totally agree with the soap remark though, and yes it's a shame and disgusting if you start thinking about it. but then prostitution is disgusting too if u think about it and many a people dig it...

[spidermike007]

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.

Mai sai pun chalote. This should be a statement you utter at EVERY THAI meal you order within these borders. That means without MSG. They are happy to do it the way you ask, if you ask. The food tastes about the same. And you are not poisoning yourself with that junk.

[Emdog]

I must be one of the lucky ones. Been sick maybe 3 times in 12 years from Thai food eateries. I won't go to a certain US chicken place because that is a 50/50 proposition. I owe my luck in part to usually going to Thai places where the cooking is done out front. Can't hide technique and cleanliness there. And look at the cooks: if they look okay, food is probably okay. I think there is some truth to building up resistance to certain germs, and perhaps poster lives in too sterile environment regarding home kitchen. Just a thought is all.

[northernjohn]

I must be one of the lucky ones. Been sick maybe 3 times in 12 years from Thai food eateries. I won't go to a certain US chicken place because that is a 50/50 proposition. I owe my luck in part to usually going to Thai places where the cooking is done out front. Can't hide technique and cleanliness there. And look at the cooks: if they look okay, food is probably okay. I think there is some truth to building up resistance to certain germs, and perhaps poster lives in too sterile environment regarding home kitchen. Just a thought is all.

Good point. Many people are brought up where hygene is practised but not made into a big issue and develop resistance to many germs automatically.

[HUAHIN62]

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.

Move to Nepal, problem solved. We eat street food about every day and don't have a problem but we are selective where we eat. There are one golden rule, only buy food from a vendor or restaurant with many clients. If you see a Thai restaurant without clients ask yourself why they don't have clients. We however prefer our own cooking because we know what goes into the food.

[dunque]

The first Restaurant we owned in Australia, we walked straight into. We built that up until two of our thai female waitresses walked in one night and made us an offer we couldn't refuse. We took a year off and then went searching for another. We looked at all types of restaurants with an idea to convert them to Thai if they weren't already. I don't know how many we looked at but it was a hell of alot. All different nationailties - In multi-cultural Melbourne.

What I saw absolutely shocked me. I had no idea. Sometimes I would bump into my wife coming in the front door as I was walking back out. 30 Seconds would be all it took. FILTHY! Putrid!

My Dishwasher Repairman told me once that many was the time he refused to repair an appliance until the owner cleaned the place up! He would be too frightened to get down on the floor to check for faults etc.

Our two restaurants were never visited by a Health Inspector either before, or at anytime after we bought them. In fact, in Melbourne in the Mid 90s the Councils scaled back their Health Inspection Services and made it more self regulatory. Many former Local Government Inspectors set up businesses teaching Food Handling, Hygeine. The Government Introduced new legislation and compulsory Health Audits. By law the owners and operators or designated staff had to do Food Handling Courses and complete Health Audits. It all went crazy for a little while and alot of people made alot of money out of it. Then it all died a natural.

Thailand is very self regulatory, especially in and around Moo Baans etc. If the food makes people crook, word travels quickly and people simply do not eat there. They will soon go out of business or move on. Tourist areas for instance don't have a good reputation, with little in the way of regular customers and thousands of single visit passing trade.

Rule of thumb is eat at places where it is difficult to get a seat. But even then 'Worlds Best Practice' is not guaranteed.

10 years permanently here, I haven't had a dose of gastro once.

Yes, this seems to be a case of first world complacency - politicians hear "there should be a law against that", they pass a law, and then everyone thinks that that is sorted.

[Frank James]

Would love to see the great Gordon Ramsay do a series of "Kitchen Nightmares: Thailand Edition". Can't you just hear him now, exploding in profane rage, veins standing out all over his reddened face!

I eat a lot of local food, at some pretty low end places, and do occasionally pay the price. I have more than once bit into grains of sand in the food (maybe it was that try that feel into the road), and I figure that's luck of the draw, BUT:

My number one peeve is having to use a common towel, used by countless others, hanging from a rusty hook, to dry my hands at the lavatory. I always think..."Howard Hughes (infamous germophobe) would have loved this place!"

[HerbalEd]

Interestingly, my experience is the opposite of the OPs. For forty-five years I have traveled extensively in about 60 different countries .. most in the third-world tropics. And scores of times I have had traveler's diarrhea ... aka Montazuma's Revenge, Delhi Belly, Bali Belly, Tourist Trots, etc.. The worst places for this that I've experienced are in sub-Sarha Africa, and India and Nepal. Mexico used to be terrible but has improved greatly over the past few decades. However, the least problems I've had have been here in Thailand.

My personal experience is that for a third-world tropical country, Thailand actually is in the upper range of clean food. No, it's not USA or western European hygienic standards, but remember we're talking third-world tropics here. With a keen eye out for clues of un-hygenic conditions, I pretty much eat freely in Thailand, including the great street food and food courts.

Occasionally I do get zapped with a case of the trots in Thailand, but it's rarely more than a mild case that I can knock out with my tried-n'-true herbal remedy within 12 to 24 hours. I even get zapped in USA (albeit rarely) ... but two years ago I got a terrible case of food poisoning in one of my favorite restaurants. Also, if the USA and western Europe were located in or near the equatorial tropics ... even with their high standards of hygiene ... you would see way more problems with food-caused diarrhea and food poisoning.

Different bodies react differently to different foods. Fortunately for me, I do very well with Thai food and food establishments. In fact, I'm hungry right now!! ... and I'm out the door now to visit my favorite sam tom street vendor.

Edited September 24, 2013 by HerbalEd

[hellodolly]

Would love to see the great Gordon Ramsay do a series of "Kitchen Nightmares: Thailand Edition". Can't you just hear him now, exploding in profane rage, veins standing out all over his reddened face!

I eat a lot of local food, at some pretty low end places, and do occasionally pay the price. I have more than once bit into grains of sand in the food (maybe it was that try that feel into the road), and I figure that's luck of the draw, BUT:

My number one peeve is having to use a common towel, used by countless others, hanging from a rusty hook, to dry my hands at the lavatory. I always think..."Howard Hughes (infamous germophobe) would have loved this place!"

I just wipe my hands on my pants far better than those towels. they don't get dry but they are less germ free.

[robertson468]

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.

Could it be that many of the Thai Restaurants and Food Vendors use MSG to enhance the taste of their meals. I understand that this can have an adverse affect on some who are less tolerant to it, as my Thai Wife is. She becomes positively dizzy, well even more dizzy than normal, if MSG is in the meal. I have been here for seven years and have had mild food poisoning only a couple of times. Most Thai meals are cooked either in boiling water or over the open fires, which kills most bacteria. Go try India Folks, upset tummies are not called Delhi Belly for nothing!

[tingtongteesood]

3 words for you - Education, common sense. I regularly see people who work in eateries in Malls come and use the bathroom then leave without any water touching their hands, let alone soap. I always tell them off for it and they never do bother to wash their hands even when told they should. As for street sellers they pee where they want and never seen them wash their hands after either. I daren't think how many germs from private areas are going in to the food eaten by millions of people daily, it's very scary....

[Benmart]

Not that any of "us" do this, but how many people don't wash their hands before they eat? Touching money, merchandise, doors, pets, escalator rails, elevator buttons,etc. is something most of us do.

I would imagine that some people get sick from their own hand and not due to the hygiene standards of the eatery. This goes worldwide and not just in LOS.

[transam]

A new shell fish ''restaurant'' just opened up near me, my chum and family went there to try it out. They spent 4 days in bed and on the ''white telephone'' afterwards.

Noooooooooooo, I am not going to sample their fare, EVER.

[thaidel48]

I've just celebrated 25 years here and eat street food all the time and never seem to have a problem. I think your Thai partner is correct to say that exposure increases resistance to Bangkok Belly.

[Suradit69]

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.

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

Yes, considering the literally millions of meals prepared in restaurants and by food vendors and eaten daily, most people, including the vast majority of farang, seem to suffer no ill effects. The only two times I recall having any major reaction recently was from a salad prepared by a farang owned "deli" and from a turkey sub sandwich prepared at uber hygienic Subway. Can't recall any problems from Thai restaurants or food vendors.

Some people are just innately "delicate" and tend to react to a change from the bland, tasteless home cooking to which they're more accustomed.

Certainly nothing like the dangers posed by mad cow epidemics, foot & mouth disease or the frequent occurrences of botulism, salmonella, E.Coli or listeria in the west. And of course, there's horse meat sold as beef and dubious food safety standards enforcement there.

September 15th 2012 ~ 30 tons of unhygienically produced chicken meat ended up in takeaways

• A piece of wire found in a takeaway led to a Bristol Council investigation into the takeaway's suppliers This led them to Hamza Poultry whose meat has been distributed across the South West to what were described in court as "KFC clones and kebab shops" The premises had none of "the necessary food hygiene approvals or licences to work with meat."

  The owner said he had not known he needed a licence, and that the equipment he had on the site had come from a butcher who owed him money.

• July 12th 2012 ~ Qui custodiet ipsos custodes? "The risk posed by the incompetence shown by the FSA staff could have catastrophic consequences..."

  • Food Standards Agency Enforcement officers must ensure that Food Business Operators are complying with the UK's health and hygiene regulations. On July 4th this year, one Food Business Operator whistleblower wrote,
    • "Are the FSA's own inspectors putting the consumers at unnecessary risk? It has been the sorry experience of many food business operators, that when they have brought their concerns forward to the FSA regarding repeated failings of the FSA staff, they have repeatedly fallen on deaf ears.

      The FSA is acting as judge, jury and executioner, and unless they listen to FBO's serious concerns regarding breaches of personal hygiene practices carried out by their own inspectors the next major food outbreak could be brought on by their own staff."

  • • http://www.warmwell.com/dirtymeat.html

Edited September 24, 2013 by Suradit69

[Torrens54]

Sadly, even some restaurants/ eating establishments that seem to be Ferang-operated are getting rather grubby these days.

A well known bunch of Burger joints (no name) that used to be spotlessly clean a few years ago seem to have gone down hill in Chiang Mai.

Just take a look at the outside hoardings, which are filthy and most unattractive. One has to wonder if the grime on the Logos is an indication of how clean the place is inside? I don't take chances, so now if I want a burger, I go to Burger King or Mc Donalds....they are always clean inside and out.

[ableguy]

I once saw a street vendor in BKK washing his hands in a bag of bean sprouts he was useing to cook pad thai'

Having said that I eat street food every day and never had a problem, Food poisening twice both cases picked up in hotels on Sukhumvit each case hospital six days, give me street food any day but I do leave freid chicken alone delicious as it is as they use the oil over and over until it runs out.

[Kudel]

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.

no such thing as 5 star restaurants,hotels maybe but for restaurants max is 3 according to the michelin guide they will get a yearly evalution from there undercover guys and they can seriously destroy the reputation of the chef and the restaurant when they are not up to standards.

[LoZth]

My rule of thumb is, eating from a stall, pick the longest queue and wait for my turn, (I'm also a good blocker if anybody tries to push in, it comes with practice!) if looking for a restaurant pick the busiest, smile at the server, say sawatdee krap and wait (and walking out if somebody after me gets their order taken first.

(I generally put my runs down to beer Leo )

[transam]

My rule of thumb is, eating from a stall, pick the longest queue and wait for my turn, (I'm also a good blocker if anybody tries to push in, it comes with practice!) if looking for a restaurant pick the busiest, smile at the server, say sawatdee krap and wait (and walking out if somebody after me gets their order taken first.

(I generally put my runs down to beer Leo )

Nooooooooo, that stopped you from going to an early box.