Kin kau leaow yang?

[george]

Thailand crackdown on hazardous foods additives

Salbutamol, antibiotics, borax, formalin, fungicides, pesticides and whitening agents found in Thai food nationwide

PHUKET TOWN: Health authorities in Phuket have joined a national crackdown on food makers and vendors mixing toxic additives with raw and processed foods.

Random checks at fresh markets in Thailand have turned up unacceptable levels of six banned products: salbutamol, borax, formalin, fungicides, pesticides and whitening agents.

As a result, Public Health Ministry inspectors are being sent out in a concerted campaign involving local authorities across the country. Those found manufacturing or selling contaminated products could face fines of up to 50,000 baht.

The campaign was announced at Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) today. The Phuket Livestock Office will test the urine of pigs for salbutamol while the Phuket Fishery Office will check hatchery prawns for chemicals.

Prompted by consumer demand for lean pork, some Thai swine breeders have taken to using salbutamol, an anti-asthma drug, which also suppoosedly enhances the appeal of raw pork by making it look redder. Over-consumption can cause muscle spasms, headaches and heart palpitations.

Antibiotics have been detected in many samples of swine carcasses, especially in their viscera, probably as a result of overdoses of antibiotics used to cure sick animals.

Borax, used as a preservative in minced pork, meatballs, fried fish and dried fruit, can cause vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, exhaustion, headache, hair loss and skin rash.

Chronic symptoms include exhaustion, lack of appetite, dry skin, eye inflammation and infection of the liver and kidneys. Consumers should avoid eating foods that seem crunchy and take a long time to digest.

Formalin is another preservative with similar side effects including acute stomach-ache, vomiting, diarrhea and even death, if consumed in sufficient quantities.

Direct contact with whitening agents used on bean sprouts, sliced ginger, preserved bamboo shoots and preserved durian can cause skin rashes. If ingested, bleaches can trigger infections in the mouth, throat and stomach as well as leading to backaches, headaches and vomiting.

Source: Phuket Gazette 2003-04-24

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Hrmmm. Have you eaten already? Kin kao leow yang?

[Up2U]

In Phuket the authorities are clamping down on undesirable additives in Thai food.

What about the snacks sold by street vendors - fried millipedes, crunchy locusts, grilled cockroach? Are we to assue that these will now be safer to eat? If your current bar-girl-of-the-evening from Soi Sea Dragon offers you a stick-insect dipped in chilli - how are you going to respond? Can't say "I don't know where it's been" any more - it will have the Egon Ronay three stars now.

Up2U

[Up2U]

OOOPS  - didn't see this post before starting a separate thread. Stooopid!

If it's oinkers that the authorities are concerned about, then they should see Hong Kong. The pigs mainly come in from the mainland, alive and kicking in special trains. I used to go to work from Kowloon Tong station up to the New Territories. The line at that point is on a bend. The trains would come down at a good speed, not stopping, and as the whipped round the curve centrifugal (or centripetal) force took command and all the piggy bodily fluids would fly through the air .....

The quickest Cantonese words I learnt were for 'Look out - the pig train's coming!!'

Then at Kowloon Central they were all off-loaded and herded (hopefully) into waiting trucks. Not always - sometimes a couple of dozen were not so exhausted by the trip that they would make a run for it - good fun.

[rina27]

<font color='#000000'>Thailand crackdown on hazardous foods additives

Salbutamol, antibiotics, borax, formalin, fungicides, pesticides and whitening agents found in Thai food nationwide

PHUKET TOWN: Health authorities in Phuket have joined a national crackdown on food makers and vendors mixing toxic additives with raw and processed foods.

Random checks at fresh markets in Thailand have turned up unacceptable levels of six banned products: salbutamol, borax, formalin, fungicides, pesticides and whitening agents.

As a result, Public Health Ministry inspectors are being sent out in a concerted campaign involving local authorities across the country. Those found manufacturing or selling contaminated products could face fines of up to 50,000 baht.

The campaign was announced at Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) today. The Phuket Livestock Office will test the urine of pigs for salbutamol while the Phuket Fishery Office will check hatchery prawns for chemicals.

Prompted by consumer demand for lean pork, some Thai swine breeders have taken to using salbutamol, an anti-asthma drug, which also suppoosedly enhances the appeal of raw pork by making it look redder. Over-consumption can cause muscle spasms, headaches and heart palpitations.

Antibiotics have been detected in many samples of swine carcasses, especially in their viscera, probably as a result of overdoses of antibiotics used to cure sick animals.

Borax, used as a preservative in minced pork, meatballs, fried fish and dried fruit, can cause vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, exhaustion, headache, hair loss and skin rash.

Chronic symptoms include exhaustion, lack of appetite, dry skin, eye inflammation and infection of the liver and kidneys. Consumers should avoid eating foods that seem crunchy and take a long time to digest.

Formalin is another preservative with similar side effects including acute stomach-ache, vomiting, diarrhea and even death, if consumed in sufficient quantities.

Direct contact with whitening agents used on bean sprouts, sliced ginger, preserved bamboo shoots and preserved durian can cause skin rashes. If ingested, bleaches can trigger infections in the mouth, throat and stomach as well as leading to backaches, headaches and vomiting.

Source: Phuket Gazette 2003-04-24

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Hrmmm. Have you eaten already? Kin kao leow yang?</font>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Lars]

Better not think about what's in the food.

As long as it tastes good it's all right.

[stumonster]

and what about the crustaceans gathered in the gulf of thailand?

and this heavy rain we are getting right now in bangkok should flush some nice stuff down into the gulf

[Jai Dee]

and what about the crustaceans gathered in the gulf of thailand?

 

and this heavy rain we are getting right now in bangkok should flush some nice stuff down into the gulf

Good point...

I wonder what all the discarded cooking oils/fats, refuse, and other miscellaneous bits'n pieces that are poured down the drains will do to the marine life?

Mutant kung?

or dead kung?