BootsnAll Travel Community

I know it can happen anywhere, I was once mildly food poisoned by a McDonalds right here in the good ol' USA, though I should've known better than go there late at night when I could tell the burger was sitting around forever and tasted nasty. But anyway, what countries do you have to be most careful with?

I figure the easiest thing to get food poisoning from would be meat and fish especially(unless you ate a fish just plucked out the water and cooked), so if you could avoid meat you'd cut out a lot of risk right there. Or am I wrong?

People always say that those sidewalk food stands you have in places like India or Thailand are safe because the food is being cooked right in front of you. But at the same time, who knows how long that meat has been sitting there in that cart underneath and whether it's been stored at the appropriate temperature. Plus I walked through a meat market in Bangkok and saw chickens hanging up in the hot sun with no refrigeration and flies crawling on them. I take it these meats often end up on sidewalk food carts.

I tend to be a very nervous eater and very afraid of getting sick when I travel.

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I was once mildly food poisoned by a McDonalds right here in the good ol' USA

Read Fast Food Nation and you'll never eat a hamburger in the US again - fast food, frozen, or otherwise. Handling standards in the US are deplorable - it seems making more money trumps food safety standards.

Back to the topic - yes, meat is probably the most likely source of trouble, but you can get poisoned by anything, and anywhere. It's not as simple as trying to guess what's safe or not by whether it's a street cart or a restaurant. The key is for the food to be clean and properly cooked. I'm a fairly adventurous eater and haven't been poisoned eating out of carts and such around the world. I look for clues that whereever I am eating is clean, and busy. A busy restaurant or food cart is probably a good one, and the locals know it.

Here's the WikiHow on Avoiding Food Poisoning - some good info there.

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I was once mildly food poisoned by a McDonalds right here in the good ol' USA,

It should be noted however, that the odds are much better getting hit by a bus than getting food poisoning at a McDonalds.

I travel to dodgy countries quite a lot, eat off the street most of the time and I rarely get sick. Just pay attention and you'll be fine. Oh, and look both ways before crossing streets.

Oddly enough, the only time I've had food poisoning(the real for-sure deal) in the US was from McDonalds. It was a looong time ago, and it was a "big breakfast platter". I haven't been hit by a bus yet, but I watched a guy get creamed by one in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Meat(raw or cooked) hanging out in the heat all day is not necessarily a problem. As long as it's only ONE day, and was cold/fresh at the beginning of the day.

Some of the absolute best tasting food I've had in my life has come from dodgy looking food carts, so I'll take the risk within reason.

The one country that I got sick in (from food) was New Zealand. Even then, it wasn't bad food, but they lied to me about dairy, and dairy products make me very, very ill.

Food in Costa Rica never made me sick and I was fine eating in Japan. I am a vegetarian, so I didn't eat raw meat while there. Japanese stomachs might be accustomed to it, but I don't know how mine would have reacted.

As a vegetarian, I do plan some of my travel destinations based on how well I'll be able to eat.

Oh, this one is easy. I have gotten seriously ill from food three times in India, once in Honduras, and once in China. The remaining fifty or so countries I've been to no worries.

I've only got sick once. It was in Turkey and lasted ages.

The first I realised I was crook (the signs were fairly obvious!) was in Safranbolu, and I guess it must have been something I ate there. I was really well looked after by the young lady who ran the pension. She fed me rice porridge three times a day and made me feel totally at home. I recovered enough to continue within a couple of days and headed off to Capadoccia but things turned nasty again there. I spent a week trying to shake it off and eventually got down to Olympos, met a couple of guys there and joined them on the Olympos-Fethiye gulet cruise. I spent about 80% of the 4 day trip curled up on deck clutching my stomach and moaning feebly. Such a waste as the trip would have been amazing if it wasn't for my atomic intestines.

Once we arrived in Fethiye I spent 3 days in bed getting weaker until the day that I couldn't physically leave the room and was crawling between my bed and the loo. The aussies were still around and got me to the local hospital - bless em.

I was diagnosed with gastro-enteritis and IVed antibiotics and lots of fluids for 24 hours. Thank god for travel insurance and thank god for those aussies. Legends both.

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Originally posted by .RiffRaff:
I've only got sick once. It was in Turkey and lasted ages.

The first I realised I was crook (the signs were fairly obvious!) was in Safranbolu, and I guess it must have been something I ate there. I was really well looked after by the young lady who ran the pension. She fed me rice porridge three times a day and made me feel totally at home. I recovered enough to continue within a couple of days and headed off to Capadoccia but things turned nasty again there. I spent a week trying to shake it off and eventually got down to Olympos, met a couple of guys there and joined them on the Olympos-Fethiye gulet cruise. I spent about 80% of the 4 day trip curled up on deck clutching my stomach and moaning feebly. Such a waste as the trip would have been amazing if it wasn't for my atomic intestines.

Once we arrived in Fethiye I spent 3 days in bed getting weaker until the day that I couldn't physically leave the room and was crawling between my bed and the loo. The aussies were still around and got me to the local hospital - bless em.

What do you think it was that did you in? Did you break one of the rules of eating safe?

I've been food poisoned three times. All in the U.S. All at fast food.

I've had food poisoning multiple times in the USA, and once in Thailand.

I've never been poisoned by fast food, maybe it's because I don't eat it...

My food poisoning experiences have been one each in the USA, Turkey, Tunisia and Malaysia. The only thing I've learned from it is not to eat in a place that's just about closed and lets you in while they're cleaning up.

I had food poison once in Haiti. It was pretty miserable for two to three days. Recommendation is don't eat food from the street vendors, especially later in the day. You have no idea how long it has been sitting there.

Only been food poisoned in the US of A, though my upcoming RTW trip may change that significantly. Having eaten street food in Cuba, China and a myriad of places in South America and NOT gotten sick, I'm a wee bit concerned that karma is going to kick my @ss on this RTW!

I think Morocco and Turkey are two countries that you want to be careful in. We got sick in Turkey from the food, but not in Morocco, but we were extremely careful in Morocco and more lax in Turkey.