Thai Food Safety (The Nation)

[Guest]

A day of living dangerously

 

 

 

Published on Aug 11, 2002

 

 

 

Napolean's famous quote "an army marches on its stomach" only goes to show the importance of food supplies in times of war. Ironically, eating these days seems like a small battle in itself (Napolean himself died of stomach cancer). Not a month goes by without a new food scare coming from the markets or restaurants near you.

 

 

 

"The food safety situation in our country is quite worrisome," says Sairoong Thongpond, manager of the Union of Consumer Organisations. "We aspire to become the global kitchen, exporting food to the rest of the world. But double standards are being employed. While export food has to go through stringent inspections, both here and at the other end, food for domestic consumption doesn't have to meet any particular standard."

 

 

 

Experts keep telling consumers not to panic, but how? In a generous act of self-sacrifice for the benefit of science, I decided to pursue the matter by willing my body as a laboratory for food safety experiments over a period of 24 hours.

 

 

 

At breakfast, it was a bowl of cereal and milk. The dioxin scare is over, so imported milk products are relatively safe again. But try not to think of the possibility of the cereal containing genetically modified grains.

 

 

 

Or think positively - opponents allege possible harm from GMO, but if this is proved true, I would rather call them benefits. Imagine turning into a Spiderman-style mutant superhero. Our children should especially be glad. With the amount of dangers they're exposed to these days - whether in amusement parks, on school buses or even in school playgrounds - they should be happy to become Children of the Corn Flake.

 

 

 

"We are used to the idea that Thailand is blessed with abundance," Sairoong says. "But food production is now done on an industrial scale everywhere. Safety is a matter of the past. What does it tell you when farmers don't eat the rice or vegetables they sell? They eat only those grown for their own consumption in separate fields."

 

 

 

At lunch, I dropped into a noodle stall and ordered a bowl of noodles with meatballs. Again, suppress all thoughts about bleaching agents that must be on the glistening noodles and super-pale bean sprouts. (Either that or they must have been using a particular brand of skin whitening product.)

 

 

 

The pork in the meatballs - if there's any at all, beside the flour - could contain residue of the asthmatic drugs that pig farms illicitly use to boost lean meat and reduce fat in pigs. Great. Considering how often I've been given porcine nicknames lately, I might as well benefit from the drug and save money and time going to the gym. If I survive the headache, nausea, vomiting, increased heart rate, palpitations, etc, that is. I hope, unscientifically, that the meatball's borax, used to maintain freshness and increase the consistency of meat products, will also have an effect on me, when I show up at a bar later in the evening. (Although I have a hunch that I'll be spending most of the time in the loo with a stomach upset and other nasty conditions that it also causes.)

 

 

 

"Food producers often say they use these chemicals because that's how consumers want their products. Some say they don't want to, but in order to stay competitive they have to," says Associate Professor Dr Prawet Tuitemwong, food science lecturer at King Mongkut University of Technology, Thonburi. "It's important to inform both the public and the producers of the dangers."

 

 

 

At 4pm, I became hungry again, and popped into a fast-food restaurant to get some fried chicken and French fries, lately thought to contain a cancer-causing chemical called acrylamide. I also remember the news a few years ago - that locally-consumed chicken were fed with sex hormones and can cause breast enlargement - which resulted in a sudden katoey rush to local fast food chains.

 

 

 

"The public must avoid products which are unnatural. They should take notice when pork is unusually red, or vegetables stay fresh for an unusually long time," said Associate Professor Dr Songsak Srianuchart, director of Mahidol University's Institute of Nutrition.

 

 

 

For dinner, I decided to splurge in Chinatown. Since shark fin soup is now not only politically incorrect but also said to contain a questionable amount of mercury, I opted for grilled seafood dipped in soy sauce (with a questionable amount of 3-MCPD, as banned by Denmark). The possibility of getting formaline from the seafood also thrilled me. If I happened to drop dead from all the dangerous chemicals I had been digesting all day, at least I would be literally drop-dead gorgeous, by the preserving power of formaline. (It's all about appearance, isn't it?)

 

 

 

All three speakers agreed that although it's possible for consumers to identify some dangerous products such as unusually lean pork, it's impossible to point out others such as borax-tainted sausages. They welcomed the Public Health Ministry's move to crack down on hazardous food products in the market.

 

 

 

"Giving certificates is a good idea, but these shouldn't be a lifetime guarantee. The shops and markets still need to be rechecked every now and then. Otherwise the bad practices will return," Songsak says.

 

 

 

"The authorities also have to extend inspections to systematically cover the whole food-producing process, not just at the outlet end," adds Sairoong.

 

 

 

If all this is robbing you of your appetite, it's meant to. Awareness of the problems will hopefully lead to solutions. (Or at least, you will get to count yourself among anorexic supermodels.)

 

 

 

"If buyers are educated and can identify and stay away from bad products, it will persuade [the suppliers] to stop those bad practices. It's a much more powerful control than official inspections," concludes Songsak.

 

 

 

I was glad to be alive at the end of my selfless experiment. On TV, I heard the news that scientists are making robots to take up dangerous tasks for us.

 

 

 

Sure, I thought, let the robots eat for us, please.

 

 

 

Paisarn Likhitpreechakul

 

 

 

THE NATION

[NokTang]

Have you read about the raids out at Svay Pak?? Seems it is getting very very serious! I had crab soup out there, it was fine, good actually! Crushed hermit crabs and broth, side of white rice boiled in???

 

 

 

 

 

just kidding!!!

 

 

 

 

 

This a test of the emergency posters network!

 

 

 

 

 

take care yourself, eat safe!

 

 

 

 

 

Nok