question about street food safety

[tomtom345]

is it safe to rice and chicken pork etc .. from street food stalls say at 2 pm till the night after the food has been out in the sun without a refrigirator ?

i want to eat street food for lunch and dinner but i want to know what street food is safe and what is not .

[Chang_paarp]

On the whole street food is safe, the authorities spend a lot of effort ensuring there is some understanding of food hygiene. One issue is how long they keep using oil for cooking, while not a hygiene issue there can be long term issues with the over use of food oil.

The vendors only buy enough stock to last for the day. They have a good/reasonable understanding of ice and keeping food at the right temperature until it cooked or the ice melts.

The people you see selling food at lunch time are not usually the same ones you see in the evening. The usual caveat is to look at the stalls and if they popular the food is usually safer and better quality.

[KittenKong]

Busy stall = fast turnover of ingredients.

I've been eating street food in Asia for 40 years and never had any trouble, apart from once in Hong Kong.

[Bernard Flint]

Never had problems with street food, or restaraunt food.Had plenty in Spain,uk usa, and Greece though

[Ling Kae]

Me too, I eat it all the time, nothing wrong. However if I see a sad looking person sitting at a cart with no customers and nothing fresh happening I steer clear of it just like the Thais do.

[slygeeza]

street food is good, altho i dont eat anything deep fried any more because I dont trust the oil they use. last time i ate deep fried chicken the oil stayed on my fingers and lips for 2 days and i couldnt wash it off, dont know what it was but Im sure its not healthy

[GaryB1263]

street food is good, altho i dont eat anything deep fried any more because I dont trust the oil they use. last time i ate deep fried chicken the oil stayed on my fingers and lips for 2 days and i couldnt wash it off, dont know what it was but Im sure its not healthy

I used to eat a lot of chicken that was fried in oil. I always thought it was palm oil? Then I noticed that it tasted too oily all of the sudden so I stopped eating it. I will probably try again someday.

[krisb]

Eat what you feel comfortable eating. Don't force yourself.

I find it hard to eat from them to unless someone says it's really good.

You know though, even the best looking places in the best looking malls can also be the dirtiest.

[Gsxrnz]

I buy from the stalls where they are actively discouraging the flies from pre-digesting my potential meal for me. That's a general indication that the stall owner has half a clue about hygiene.

The fresh food vendors in the market that have their kids beating off the flies with an inflated plastic bag on a stick get a gold star from me. Those that have the little electric motor with two inflated plastic bags rotating on a bit of coat hanger wire get two gold stars.

However, when buying "fresh" chicken I'm never sure whether to go for the fly blown pieces on the top of the pile, or the pieces on the bottom that are floating in the salmonella soup.

[KittenKong]

I avoid chicken in Thailand. Elsewhere too for that matter, unless I know it is free range. There are far too many hormones and general nastiness involved in intensive chicken farming for my taste.

[JSixpack]

The fresh food vendors in the market that have their kids beating off the flies with an inflated plastic bag on a stick get a gold star from me. Those that have the little electric motor with two inflated plastic bags rotating on a bit of coat hanger wire get two gold stars.

But

I saw on the fresh market, when there were not many customer: Shop with meat, meat full with flies so he took the insect spray and sprayed the meat.....

More about that: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/696288-major-evidence-that-low-carb-diets-not-needed-for-long-term-weight-lossmaintenance-success/page-7#entry8028984

Edited July 27, 2014 by JSixpack

[Gsxrnz]

The fresh food vendors in the market that have their kids beating off the flies with an inflated plastic bag on a stick get a gold star from me. Those that have the little electric motor with two inflated plastic bags rotating on a bit of coat hanger wire get two gold stars.

But

I saw on the fresh market, when there were not many customer: Shop with meat, meat full with flies so he took the insect spray and sprayed the meat.....

More about that: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/696288-major-evidence-that-low-carb-diets-not-needed-for-long-term-weight-lossmaintenance-success/page-7#entry8028984

Yep, seen them spraying fly spray on the food as well.

But if you see them spraying the "fresh" meat with an innocuous looking spray bottle, be very wary. Formalin is being used as a preservative.

Murphy's choice - injest Maldison from the insect spray, or Formalin. My poison of choice would be the insect spray.

[Rimmer]

One post removed:

A bloke down our way got a warning the other day for trolling !!

[pinkpanther99]

I eat Thai street food a lot and have never had any problems.

That said, I've had friends visit for a two week holiday and been quite violently ill after eating Pad Thai from the a street food stall for the first time.

Look out for food places that are busy with Thai people and you wont go far wrong in my opinion.

[maswov]

What else is there to eat?

[jacko45k]

I think I will continue to take care when eating 'street food'....... sticking to things that have just been cooked or on the BBQ, and being particularly wary during the hot season when I seem to get a few mild cases of dodgy food. Also no BUGs, or that rather dubious soup made by pouring barely hot stock over raw offal that has been sitting around a while.

Food poisoning is very unpleasant and as you get older, becomes dangerous.

[Thaiberius]

Very reluctant to eat street food when you see the som tam pot never being washed, plates being washed in lukewarm water, rats crawling all over the stall at night. I only eat stir fries as salad or anything stored in those glass boxes on the carts covered in flies should never be touched. For an extra 5 or 10 baht per dish why not use a proper mama papa type shop. At least they have running water.

[misterphil]

I eat the BBQ pork and chicken when Im out on an allday drinking session.

[SunSeek01]

KKong has it right, busy stall = high turnover. I have eaten primarily street food for a couple 7 month visits. Be careful of seafood but overall it's fine. I like those whole chickens rotisserie for 150/175 baht. Also shop house restaurants can be very good, a great one on soi 14 Naklua.

[JournalistsAreLiars]

Only noodles and boiled soup is safe at least from bacteria. But anyway there is no dish that won't kill you slowly in Thailand because most ingredients are poisoned, whatever BS other people will tell you means that they know nothing.

[craigt3365]

It's not just the food you need to worry about. Also look at how they wash dishes. The water quality is often quite dubious. As is their handling of the food.

http://hepatitis.about.com/od/hepatitisa/a/HAVrestaurants.htm

https://sitata.com/alerts/hepatitis-a-street-food-vendors-suspected-as-cause-of-hepatitis-outbreak-in-costa-rica

I've seen street food vendors in Bangkok go to the local canal for water to wash dishes with. I've also seen them take uneaten rice off a customers plate and toss it back into the rice cooker.

[heybuz]

A friend of mine international airline pilot was told by his company the most likely place he'll get food poisoning is from his hotel

[Suradit69]

Busy stall = fast turnover of ingredients.

I've been eating street food in Asia for 40 years and never had any trouble, apart from once in Hong Kong.

And if certain vendors were known for selling bad food, you'd notice a total lack of (surviving) Thai customers queued up to buy more.

I can't recall ever having a problem after eating street food. The couple of times I did have a problem were once from prepared food sold at an apparently squeaky clean brand name supermarket chain outlet and once at an American based food franchise that is known for selling sandwiches that contain turkey meat but will remain unnamed.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Suradit69

[Bernard Flint]

I avoid chicken in Thailand. Elsewhere too for that matter, unless I know it is free range. There are far too many hormones and general nastiness involved in intensive chicken farming for my taste.

Is that why i am horny 24/7????

[Farma]

I'm friends with a health department team operating a mobile laboratory in another province. They do random testing on street foods.

They tell me most of the problems they find aren't with the cooked food but with high levels of pesticide on the accompanying salad vegetables.

[GOLDBUGGY]

Generally Safe! I used to eat a lot of that at one time and was never sick. But moved and I don't anymore.

But having said that my Thai Wife has had Food Poisoning 2 times in 4 years and both times required a night in the hospital. The only difference between what she ate, and what I did, was food from a Food Stall, as her tastes sometimes are different than mine. It happened once in Udon Thani and once in Pattaya.

A word of caution though, if you do. Stay away from heavily spiced food from a stall. Or anywhere else for that matter which you don't know and trust. Spices are a good way to hide spoiled meat. So it is a good way to get sick even though taste doesn't always detect poisoned food, and many times it does not.

[connda]

I've eaten street food since I got here 7 years ago.

I've had food poisoning twice. Both times at international food franchises here in Thailand that farangs go to.

I trust street food. I have a number of specific vendors that I eat at depending on what I want.

[stailmanki]

Watch out for kanom jin, that's the one where you are served a bowl of fish curry rice noodles, it's delicious as are all the fresh herbs and salad greens that are on the table. Problem is that everybody helps them selves to the greens & Nobody Washes Their Hands

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[connda]

I eat Thai street food a lot and have never had any problems.

That said, I've had friends visit for a two week holiday and been quite violently ill after eating Pad Thai from the a street food stall for the first time.

Look out for food places that are busy with Thai people and you wont go far wrong in my opinion.

Yeah, that is true. Westerners and their phobia of bacteria and excessive cleaning tend to cause them to be pretty susceptible to local bacteria here and in other non-Western countries. But that bacteria is in the water, in the food, it's everywhere. Imodium is a newbie tourists friend. If it's bad enough, antibiotics. And time. It took me about a year to get completely use to the local bacteria.

[SunSeek01]

KK got it right, busy stall = fast turnover. Check out Mark Wiens on YT, pretty good.