If you so much fancy street food and you are on the verge of relocating to Thailand, or you are just a tourist whose priority when traveling is to experience the culture or enjoy the food, and is fascinated by the tales of Bangkok and has added Thailand to the list of places you would love to travel to, then you must be wondering if it is safe to eat street food in Thailand.
Truth is, street food in Thailand does not pose more or less risk as compared to restaurants. Street foods will always be safe for consumption so long as certain hygiene conditions are met. In fact, with street foods, you get to see and observe first-hand how it is being prepared, and they are always served fresh. In the long run, this will ensure you remain healthy. Moreover, a recent report by the department of justice showed that street food vendors, especially the ones in trucks and carts receive fewer health and safety violations as compared to restaurants
Your question could either be a result of personal hygiene concerns, reviews, or what you might have seen or heard on the internet. Whatever the case may be, this article is bound to tell you if it is safe to eat street food in Thailand. (1).
For a fact, a roadside street food vendor in Thailand may not follow your ideal hygiene regulations as your preferred restaurant at home, and as such, oftentimes, most travelers wonder if they should rely on street food at all, or if it is just another guaranteed way of getting sick. A traveler called Elliot Rhodes considers himself “lucky” to have only fallen sick abroad three times in his years of travel, he further went on to say for every time he fell ill the culprit was a nice restaurant that mostly fed foreigners, never a street food cart.
The majority of the locals in Thailand for sure rely on street food vendors as their go-to source for daily meals. If they weren’t safe for consumption the reverse would be the case, I mean no one in their right mind loves the feeling of being sick.
Tips To Safely Eat Street Foods In Thailand
It would be unrealistic to rule out the fact that not all street food vendors in Thailand meet certain hygiene conditions, and as such, some certain practices and tips have helped several travelers who have been to Thailand enjoy different local cuisines served by roadside vendors without falling sick. At this point, your next question would be what are these tips and best practices? Well, below are a few of them.
- Always watch your food being cooked
- Observe how the vendors serve other customers
- Go for stalls with long lines
- Follow the regular local meal times
Always watch your food being cooked
The best thing street food vendors knowingly or unknowingly have to offer is the ability of their customers to see the food being prepared, this is great, why not take advantage of it? Check to see if there are bugs near the pans or ingredients, is the cooking area dirty? Or did the vendor wipe his or her nose while cooking? Are their heads properly covered? If the answers to these questions are all negative then it would be best to look for another option.
However, some street food vendors in Thailand prefer to cook in the back and serve customers at the front, avoiding these places at all costs.
Observe how the vendors serve other customers
Always observe how customers before you are being served in addition to watching your food being cooked. Are the customers being served with dirty containers? Are the servers properly covered? Did they go on to touch their face and then the food? Is the person serving also handling the cash? If these answers aren’t pleasing then it would be best to head somewhere else.
Go for stalls with long lines
A sketchy, unhygienic street food stall or cart that makes people fall sick all the time probably won’t have customers (especially the locals) waiting in long lines to get served, especially when they know these places are not safe to eat. If a street food stall or cart is empty, avoid it, they may be a good reason for that.
Follow the regular local meal times
It would only be normal for a stall or cart to be without lines of people waiting to get served if you go at the wrong time. Be in tune with the regular local meal times.
