Thai food hygiene: Restaurants told to get their act together or face fines of 50K next month

[webfact]

Thai food hygiene: Restaurants told to get their act together or face fines of 50K next month

 

Picture: Daily News

 

The department of hygiene has warned restaurants and food preparers of all kinds in Thailand to smarten up their cleanliness of face fines of 50,000 baht from December 16th.

 

Dr Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai, acting department chief, said that since new health ministry regulations were issued in 2018 all restaurants were supposed to report for training by the end of 2020.

 

However he admitted that many out of 500,000 establishments had not reported for training.

 

The training includes the way food is prepared, the ingredients that are permitted and general cleanliness of locations and personnel among many other factors. 

 

Now Daily News reported that those restaurants who had done nothing to address the issue over the last few years needed to act.

 

With time running out measures would be announced at the end of next week to clear up the backlog.

 

Soure: Daily News

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-11-27

 

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[peterdarby]

Nice timing, hit them up while they are still recovering from the lost income during lockdowns.

[trainman34014]

And while your at it get them to remove and replace all the chipped and cracked china and plastic plates and other utensils; disgusting and i send back any that are delivered to my table.   They don't like it but tough luck and they should get their ar*** in order !                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

[DualSportBiker]

It's not just the restaurants. I used to operate an industrial cleaning service that delivered pharma-grade cleaning in a fraction of the time normal cleaning would deliver lower results. Some of the country's biggest producers told me "We don't need to be that clean." Doing the minimum is the standard...

[douglasspade]

Funny when I type "Thailand" into google web page search one of the 10 results is "Surviving Food Poisoning in Thailand"

 

I guess that is the last thing you want tourists to see about your country, Covid will not kill you here, the restaurants will.

[cucme]

Another nice way  to make some extra $$, although one of the reasons I rarely eat out.

[Regyai]

Let me guess two years inertia over this from the good folks in the Dr's department and someone notices the looming deadline. Wonder if they're fully resourced and ready to train the staff of half a million establishments in the remaining few weeks?

[fangless]

15 minutes ago, Regyai said:

Let me guess two years inertia over this from the good folks in the Dr's department and someone notices the looming deadline. Wonder if they're fully resourced and ready to train the staff of half a million establishments in the remaining few weeks?

What training is required to collect a brown envelope from untrained food outlets?

[Migrosmarket]

Haven't reported for training because they are now closed due to the great covid scam.....

[djayz]

2 hours ago, peterdarby said:

Nice timing, hit them up while they are still recovering from the lost income during lockdowns.

There's no time like the present to clean up! The standards here are shocking! I'm surprised more people aren't off work with the trotters.

Now is the perfect time for this. Fewer customers means they can close shop for a day or two and go to the training. 

[JusticeGB]

Nice new brown envelope earner!

[Lickey]

They say you'll eat a peck of dirt before you die, but not in one day... 

[CapeTown]

Half a million restaurants? Probably four times that figure and 90% just about surviving.

If spas need an annual license then so should restaus.

For restaurants making money, a Health Chief should liaise with the Tourist Authority.

The government may not realise at the moment that its survival and that of the nation depend on tourism and there is much to be done to get back into the top ten tourist destinations. Somehow, the govt has stoked a real hate of Thailand amongst people beyond its borders. The Land of Smiles is revealed to be full of violent scammers determined to get something for nothing, which is not a recipe for long term stability and success.

Edited November 27, 2020 by CapeTown

[anchadian]

It's not just restaurants, takeaway street food also needs cleaning up.

 

One wonders how much sodium and msg (which I mentioned in another thread) they throw into these takeaway meals and still some of these stalls don't use gloves to prepare food.  Disgusting.

[NE1]

It gets boring doesn't it , more rules and regs. with nobody enforcing them .

 

[Tambs2020]

Among other things..I own a pest control company!

 

I reckon this issue is not the most of their problems !

 

 

[tomazbodner]

2 hours ago, peterdarby said:

Nice timing, hit them up while they are still recovering from the lost income during lockdowns.

Yes, they shouldn't do that. Instead they should force them to pay the hospital bills of all their clientele for food poisoning caused by them. That could be 100s of times more each day.

[wmlc]

What is everyone talking about? These restaurants he is referring to are the mom and pop shops that all Thai people frequent often because they are very cheap and affordable. Thai people still have to eat and these restaurants are all still very busy during Covid, in fact most are packed full of people.   The touristy places are the ones that are suffering and most of those practice good hygiene. 

[ChrisKC]

No real excuses, but most restaurants, (not to mention the thousands of ad hoc places where people set themselves up on pavements and in the road), are exposed to the outside, even the kitchens all day and night. It is difficult to control pests, traffic fumes, polluted air and dust coming into contact with food and equipment. But the time has come for these places to be licensed and for there to be regular checks made on the rules that are officially imposed, AND for enforcement of them. Train up people for a new department in the Health Ministry as Inspectors - it will take a while but some day...

 

This is the price they have to pay for all the years being able to operate in environments that are cheap to run as in many cases no actual premises are involved, and ignoring basic health standards.

 

We live in hope, but maybe die in despair!

[ChipButty]

Where I live we have 4 of these local markets operating on different days about 50% food stalls and hygiene is none existent, one day I sent my cleaner to get me some chicken and rice when she came back the chicken was raw I binned it and told her dont buy me food like that, she didn't tell me she was going to the market

[ChipButty]

Thai's dont know about refrigeration they will take it out of a freezer let it defrost then put it back in the freezer 

[Cake Monster]

3 hours ago, peterdarby said:

Nice timing, hit them up while they are still recovering from the lost income during lockdowns.

It is probably the very best time to " Hit " them.

This should carry maximum impact, and for sure some of the Establishments need a whole lot to be desired in Food Storage, preparation, and most of all Hygiene.

Over the last few Years, I have witnessed a genuine desire to provide better service from many Food Outlets ( Both Restaurant and Street ), but there are still some really Filthy Operations plying their Trade out there, and they need to be stopped.

[HarrySeaman]

I have eaten Thai street food with only three problems in 20 years. 

 

The first time it made me sick was when a bus stopped at a food court and even though I knew better I chose a dish from an unheated display of dishes, food that had probably been sitting there for hours.  The only reason I chose it is because the soup seller wasn't at his booth.  Later that day I wished I had gone hungry.

 

Thai street food made me sick twice more when I ate som tam (papaya pok pok) because my wife got that for us.  The first time it had a crab in it, which is normal.  The next time no crab but I'm sure the mortar and pestle weren't cleaned between uses.  After that my wife made our som tam at home using clean equipment and we both enjoyed it many times sans crabs and sans multiple visits to the toilet.

 

The only other time Thai food has made me sick was from one of the supposed best Thai restaurants in Bangkok.  I'll never return to that restaurant.

 

For the last 15 years I have stuck with Thai street food and selected small Thai restaurants where I can see the food being cooked and I have never had a food poisoning problem of any kind.

 

Personally I think a lot of the problems farangs encounter is because they are such cleanliness freaks.  If they were a little less clean they would be exposed to more types of bacteria and build up defenses against them.  The healthiest children are those raised on farms where they are exposed to all sorts of dirt, animals, and animal excrement. 

[ChipButty]

I think in England the staff have to go on a coarse for Food Hygiene and get a certificate 

[Trujillo]

"Nice timing, hit them up while they are still recovering from the lost income during lockdowns."

 

What does that have to do with restaurants serving unhygienic food? 

[samsensam]

 

if i take a short cut to my apartment building i pass through small sois where street vendors store their carts. i see dogs, cats and rats freely running over the carts. i see the local drunks and homeless using the carts to sit on or put/spill their beer, food, etc on. i have never, ever seen a vendor wash or clean their cart before taking it out to use for the preparation and service of food.

 

 

[ChipButty]

I used to frequent a bar which is a nice place and clean until 3 cats came on the scene there were all over the bar, staff handling them and they used to jump on the tables, they would be in the kitchen,  

[johnmcc6]

I have seen many premises that will be impossible to clean . Cannot clean floors with big cracks and missing tiles. Nor filth from ceilings and walls. Nothing short of total renovation required. An impossible task that will never get done.Brown envelope the only way many places will stay open,

[Hayduke]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

However he admitted that many out of 500,000 establishments had not reported for training.

 

Where exactly are they supposed to 'report' for training....?

 

And who exactly is going to 'train' the staff of some 500,000 restaurants....by next month?

 

A classically Thai excuse for a... classically Thai extortion scheme.

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2020 by Hayduke

[dave moir]

I hope proper disposal of waste is taken into account as well! The Chinese restaurant in Khampaeng din road Chiang Mai just dump their waste across the street and let waste water swill across the road! There's usually half a dozen large plastic bags by the end of the night and the footpath swilling in stinking red gunge! It's a total disgrace but nothing seems to be done about it!