Formalin poisoning from street food

[ggt]

The moral of this story...do not eat the street vendor's food...unless you are willing to take a chance on getting food poisoning...

[recom273]

The formaldehyde is used to accelerate the drying process of those flat squid which you see pegged onto the washing lines of street carts.

I eat all streetfood here, but never those squid.

[pizzachang]

I would suspect an allergic reaction or seafood not held at the correct temperature/ type food poisoning -- both of which you can quickly recover from.

Given the large number of recent food contamination problems in the USA, I think reporting such incidents in Thailand is important but it certainly does not mean that you are going to die from eating street-vendor food. There would be Thai bodies stacked everywhere if it were that dangerous. I think that the modern "Western" mind is just uncomfortable seeing less than sterile conditions in any setting. Yet, food contamination, food poisonings, unsanitary hospitals and lack of handwashing occurs daily in the USA and lots(most) other countries. We are glued to Nat Geo channels, watching people eat insects, super sweet, deep fried "stuff" and then comment on how dirty Thailand is - get a real life and let other folks eat in piece.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Hottest part of the year....700 km from the gulf....add a little anti-freeze to the Ya-ba, and a few beers that are clearly marked as a year old.....dirty glass....dirty ice....A Thai going to RAM; that's suspicious in itself.

what's wrong with you? have you ever been to C.M. RAM? the patients are about 90% Thai like EVERY hospital in Thailand.

Suan Dok is closer to Wat Prasing and free for Thais.

Why did she go to CM RAM?

[thepool]

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I would suspect an allergic reaction or seafood not held at the correct temperature/ type food poisoning -- both of which you can quickly recover from.

Given the large number of recent food contamination problems in the USA, I think reporting such incidents in Thailand is important but it certainly does not mean that you are going to die from eating street-vendor food. There would be Thai bodies stacked everywhere if it were that dangerous. I think that the modern "Western" mind is just uncomfortable seeing less than sterile conditions in any setting. Yet, food contamination, food poisonings, unsanitary hospitals and lack of handwashing occurs daily in the USA and lots(most) other countries. We are glued to Nat Geo channels, watching people eat insects, super sweet, deep fried "stuff" and then comment on how dirty Thailand is - get a real life and let other folks eat in piece.

Have a look at the link !

Never eat in this country it must be a filthy place

http://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/

[ClutchClark]

Not just street vendors...tis used in markets on a lot of the food you buy....expecting fresh and clean....to take home to cook.

The other day we were at our village leaders house, his wife has a stall at the local evening market every day.....she told my missus of the vast amounts of people using chemicals and poisons to help their produce along, getting it ripe, keeping it ripe and fresh looking to sell across the board....even bananas she said.

Some time ago we started buying as much organic foods as possible from farms directly or a shop or 2 that specialise in it.

We maybe have 60/70% of vegetables now from those sources....and at least that has cut down the possibility of ingesting so much of this rubbish these nasty little selfish inconsiderate <deleted> people use on their produce.

Not trying to be a wiseguy but how can you trust "organic" to actually be "organic"?

There is no regulatory agency or investigators.

The label organic makes the same vegetable worth 60% than its non-organic sibling.

What is to prevent the savvy marketer to simply say organic?

[Showbags]

Not just street vendors...tis used in markets on a lot of the food you buy....expecting fresh and clean....to take home to cook.

The other day we were at our village leaders house, his wife has a stall at the local evening market every day.....she told my missus of the vast amounts of people using chemicals and poisons to help their produce along, getting it ripe, keeping it ripe and fresh looking to sell across the board....even bananas she said.

Some time ago we started buying as much organic foods as possible from farms directly or a shop or 2 that specialise in it.

We maybe have 60/70% of vegetables now from those sources....and at least that has cut down the possibility of ingesting so much of this rubbish these nasty little selfish inconsiderate <deleted> people use on their produce.

Not trying to be a wiseguy but how can you trust "organic" to actually be "organic"?

There is no regulatory agency or investigators.

The label organic makes the same vegetable worth 60% than its non-organic sibling.

What is to prevent the savvy marketer to simply say organic?

Absolutely nothing.

But....you have to hope it is and then you are at least in with a fighting chance of it being better....than not.

Re price, yes it is more, but I prefer to pay a little more nowadays than the cheapest available. I do not believe it is 60%. Where we are buying our stuff it is very reasonable and I hesitate to say some items are cheaper, some dearer and at the end of the dat it may work out just a little more. Some times some specific vegies are a lot more, because harder to grow or wrong season and a lot of these are grown in hot houses to control bugs, easier to keep out and therefore no need for poisons.

I an only say I am happy with the 3 places where we buy our organic produce.

[RicLawes]

Formaldehyde in food

Vendors have been lacing “fresh” sea and other foods with formaldehyde for generations. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=218&tid=39 I have even spoken to an ex engineer in the British far east army whose job it was to restore the function of shrimp farms in Borneo after the Japanese retreat in the 1940s. He informed me it was a common practice to add formalin to shrimps and remains so today. A reasonable source for information on toxicity can be found here: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/formalde.html .

Some formaldehyde is produced by the foods themselves. For example a kilo of dried Shiitake mushrooms contains up to 400 mg/kg of formaldehyde. http://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/whatsnew/whatsnew_fa/files/formaldehyde.pdf

The toxicity is directly related to the dose and the route of administration. Very small doses appear to be harmless at formaldehyde is, perhaps surprisingly, a permitted constituent of many foodstuffs. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=218&tid=39 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10962510

I write to draw readers’ attention to another bizarre culinary practice I recently encountered in Myanmar and it thus probably occurs in Thailand also. By melting the used plastic bottle from bottled water into hot cooking fat and then deep-frying the food, food remains crispier for longer. The quality of plastic polycarbonate bottles is controlled in Europe to minimise the effect of toxins emanating from food containers. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23320909

As simple contact with the plastic elutes oestrogen like substances from the plastic, one may wonder what harm comes from deep fried bottle? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23768370 Certainly a fusion food?

Edited April 28, 2014 by RicLawes

[HerbalEd]

A quick cure and very cheap !

Only 5 hours to cure a "seriously ill" person ?

There's many types of "seriously ill" ... some of which can be cured even quicker than 5 hours.

[oldsailor35]

Makes me wonder about the mysterious deaths we have seen in recent times both in CM and the south.

[Gillyflower]

I have just been a patient at the CM Ram (every week 7 times following). I get a discount off the bill!!!!!!!! It's true that most of the patients are Thai but there are a hell of a lot of foreigners too. A great meeting place for people you haven't seen for years. I bumped into two different lots of people - one that I haven't seen for 9 years and the other for 5 years. Expensive, but the service is great.

[edwardandtubs]

The use of formalin by street vendors has been reported by mainstream Thai media and government inspectors. This thread just proves that a lot of posters don't want to believe that their beloved street food is toxic garbage,

Sorry, but rubbish !

I have been eating disgusting street food since 2004 in Thailand, Vietnam, China, India, Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos and Cambodia and have never been made sick by it. The only time I ever suffered from food poisoning was in Chiang Rai when I bought some beef mince from BigC and made meat pies at home. Thought I had died and gone to hell.

Ah the old ''it never done me no harm'' argument. It reminds me of the BBC programme about people eating radioactive food in Chernobyl who were saying exactly the same thing. You wouldn't expect eating food containing a banned preservative would immediately make you sick. It's the long term effect of exposure to it that's going to cause health problems.

Edited April 28, 2014 by edwardandtubs

[Ulysses G.]

That argument hold true with any kind of food - not just "street food", so we are all screwed.

Edited April 28, 2014 by Ulysses G.

[mrfaroukh]

Try to avoid all kind meat by vendors in summer, not very healthy during heat.

[northernjohn]

Not just street vendors...tis used in markets on a lot of the food you buy....expecting fresh and clean....to take home to cook.

The other day we were at our village leaders house, his wife has a stall at the local evening market every day.....she told my missus of the vast amounts of people using chemicals and poisons to help their produce along, getting it ripe, keeping it ripe and fresh looking to sell across the board....even bananas she said.

Some time ago we started buying as much organic foods as possible from farms directly or a shop or 2 that specialise in it.

We maybe have 60/70% of vegetables now from those sources....and at least that has cut down the possibility of ingesting so much of this rubbish these nasty little selfish inconsiderate <deleted> people use on their produce.

Not trying to be a wiseguy but how can you trust "organic" to actually be "organic"?

There is no regulatory agency or investigators.

The label organic makes the same vegetable worth 60% than its non-organic sibling.

What is to prevent the savvy marketer to simply say organic?

What is organic?

In Canada it means that the government restricts the fertilizer and pesticides I believe are banned. Not sure on them.

The point is it is not just planted and left to grow with out any further tending to it.

So what is Organic here in Thailand. Seems to me with no pesticides or fertilizer the produce would be kind of wimpy.

I also agree with the previous poster that to here people on Thai Visa talk you would expect bodies all over the place.

On a tour in Mexico many years ago the guide warned us about drinking the local water. He said it was OK for the locals as their bodies were used to it. He went on to say that if he was to come to are country and drink water that is safe to us he might get sick from it.

The point is how many of these sick people have only been here a short time? Yes of course there will be long time ex pats and locals getting sick from the food and has been mentioned by several posters it wasn't all off the food carts.

Not going to get into the compared to other countries nonsense. I live in Thailand and if I ever visit those other countries I will worry about it then.

[atyclb]

and yet most of my friends are still happy to eat at the food stalls and centers MSG overloaded soups and fried "whatevers"

Told dozens of them about the danger of their beloved cheap and tasty thai food, no success.

The replies are mostly like these:

-thais are eating it and I see no corpses on the streets"

-If it is that bad, why the queues are long and every 5 meters food stall?

-all food is boiled or fried so no need to worry

-the chilli kills bacteria and worms

To convince even 1 person that it is (as it was mentioned earlier) toxic garbage is almost the same as talking to religious fanatic. They just don't follow... (

Could just be the ones that dont mind eating formalin are at an advanced age with significant medical problems and don'y mind getting a "head start" on "embalming"

[daveAustin]

Welcome to the third world.

[jacko45k]

Try to avoid all kind meat by vendors in summer, not very healthy during heat.

Very true, it is a season that I do get the odd bout of 'something I ate'.....

Albeit from the market or a fancy hotel, even prepared fruit in a plastic bag is suspect... slightly cooked and sugar added.

I think avoiding seafood if you are a long way from the sea or in a landlocked country in the hot season works.

I doubt a pigs head holds up long in 37 DegC despite the slowly revolving fan with tassels nearby.

[opalred]

i stopped buying fresh seafood in cm last time after china new year brought a lot of fish fillets from makro put in frezzer even when frozon the strong fish

smell went through everything loaded with formalin formalin keeps seafood from going off but fish smell will get stronger over the days

have a wiff of the strong fish smell as you drive past seafood stall along sansai maejo rd the stronger the fish smell the more formalin dipped in every day till sold

dont do what i did last time in patong brought 3000bht fresh fillets sealed in plastic cling wrap taken from me at exray i think staff at air asia wanted to have bbq

[Chicog]

If you are getting fish from China, the chances are the chemicals have been seeping into it since the eggs hatched.

As for the pigs heads, I didn't think you were supposed to eat them *until* they've spent loads of time in 37 DegC.

[wandasloan]

The use of formalin by street vendors has been reported by mainstream Thai media and government inspectors. This thread just proves that a lot of posters don't want to believe that their beloved street food is toxic garbage,

On the contrary, I think a "lot of posters" won't believe that one woman eating the same food as many other people including her boyfriend not only got formalin poisoning (pretty well impossible on its own) but then was cured in 5 hours.

Even the scary posts describe something very close to an allergic reaction - and not to formaldehyde, which doesn't cause allergic reactions but something much worse, and to everyone, not one random consumer.

The thing is that NONE of that has anything to do with whether food is toxic garbage or isn't.

The moral of this story...do not eat the street vendor's food...unless you are willing to take a chance on getting food poisoning...

No symptom described indicates food poisoning. I don't know for a certainty what it was, but I know for a certainty that the person described as victim was not suffering an attack of food poisoning.

.

Edited April 29, 2014 by wandasloan

[tingtongteesood]

I don't eat streetfood, only things that come in packaging with names of companies who could theoretically at least be sued if I was poisoned by their food.

[Ulysses G.]

Good luck with that in Thailand.

[Tokay]

I've been eating street food here for two decades and only got sick once - an egg dish sitting in the sun during hot season. I think that she just had bad luck.

Though, you don't know the long term damage you could be doing to yourself. I hope that is not the case, but poison is poison. It doesn't end well when you ingest it.

Unless we grow it ourselves, we all eat poison somewhere.

[FolkGuitar]

I've been eating street food here for two decades and only got sick once - an egg dish sitting in the sun during hot season. I think that she just had bad luck.

Though, you don't know the long term damage you could be doing to yourself. I hope that is not the case, but poison is poison. It doesn't end well when you ingest it.

Unless we grow it ourselves, we all eat poison somewhere.

I think the majority of us are in our 60's and 70's. How much 'long term' have we got?!?

Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we may.....etc.,etc.

[Ulysses G.]

I've been eating street food here for two decades and only got sick once - an egg dish sitting in the sun during hot season. I think that she just had bad luck.

Though, you don't know the long term damage you could be doing to yourself. I hope that is not the case, but poison is poison. It doesn't end well when you ingest it.

Unless we grow it ourselves, we all eat poison somewhere.

True. Any food could have something bad in it, unless you grow it yourself, but I rather take my chances than resort to that.

[mamborobert]

I've been eating street food here for two decades and only got sick once - an egg dish sitting in the sun during hot season. I think that she just had bad luck.

Though, you don't know the long term damage you could be doing to yourself. I hope that is not the case, but poison is poison. It doesn't end well when you ingest it.

Unless we grow it ourselves, we all eat poison somewhere.

I think the majority of us are in our 60's and 70's. How much 'long term' have we got?!?

Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we may.....etc.,etc.

I stopped buying the 5 year diaries as did not think I would get full value. I would much rather have a full and enjoyable life (and I love street food) that win the "die with a pristine colon" competition.

Not sure what the fatality rate in Thailand is for street food but imagine it must be less than ...Songkran, owning a Pattay high rise with balcony, riding without a helmet, riding on some bus routes, riding on some trains, lao khao, respiratory conditions from smog, official posting to Pattani, .......

All in all I think if you have food poisoning you have a much greater risk after unknowingly offended wife or gf or significant other than random high turn over street food.

[mikemac]

The use of formalin by street vendors has been reported by mainstream Thai media and government inspectors. This thread just proves that a lot of posters don't want to believe that their beloved street food is toxic garbage,

Sorry, but rubbish !

I have been eating disgusting street food since 2004 in Thailand, Vietnam, China, India, Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos and Cambodia and have never been made sick by it. The only time I ever suffered from food poisoning was in Chiang Rai when I bought some beef mince from BigC and made meat pies at home. Thought I had died and gone to hell.

Ah the old ''it never done me no harm'' argument. It reminds me of the BBC programme about people eating radioactive food in Chernobyl who were saying exactly the same thing. You wouldn't expect eating food containing a banned preservative would immediately make you sick. It's the long term effect of exposure to it that's going to cause health problems.

Yes, you are correct. And I am sure you are aware that human saliva causes cancer, but only if swallowed in small doses over a long period of time.

Nobody is asking you to eat off the street, and I could not care less where you ate.