Tips To Avoid Food Poisoning While Traveling Abroad
A lot of foreign countries lack the regulations that enforce a good health code when it comes to serving food. It is easy to get food poisoning when traveling abroad. Instead of dealing with food poisoning during your travels, learn how to avoid them by studying the tips below.
Only eat at reputable businesses. It isn’t always easy taking a shot in the dark, that’s why you should take recommendations from friends, travel agents, or check online for reviews. Use a popular search engine to get local recommendations for eateries. The higher they rank in the search engine results, the more likely that the destination is a popular choice. Only visit restaurants that are near tourist attractions. The standards for restaurants that are meant to attract tourists are higher.
Never buy food from local street vendors. In most cases, these vendors do not have proper licensing for selling food and their standards are much lower than those of a local restaurant. If you see something you like, purchase it from a restaurant instead.
Inspect the overall appearance of an eatery before buying their food. Just by looking at their practices, you can determine if the place has high or low standards for food safety. Check the conditions of the tablecloths and how the waitresses handle the food. For example, if they clearly don’t wash hands and just pick dropped food items off the floor, turn away quickly.
Choose to eat hot foods. Usually foods that are cooked have a less likely chance to contain bacteria which is the leading cause of food poisoning. Raw foods are another option, but only if they can be peeled. Items such as oranges and bananas have not been exposed to bacteria.
Avoid eating seafood and dairy products that are raw. Seafood is popular, but it is unlikely that it has been cooked well enough to avoid food poisoning and it can also contain contaminants from local waters. Dairy products should be avoided as they may not have been pasteurized or stored at the proper temperatures.
Always drink bottled water. Most foreign countries don’t have a good water filtration system in place. Don’t drink tap water and certainly don’t use ice cubes as they are made from the same unfiltered water. Always check that the bottle is properly sealed and the seal has not been broken.
Wash your hands thoroughly before sitting down to eat. This can help remove the microbes and bacteria that exist on your hands. Your body may not have been exposed to some of the microbes in that foreign country and that can easily lead to food poisoning.
Only eat small portions of any meal. This helps reduce sickness in the off chance that your meal is contaminated. Your body can fight off the sickness easier or be affected very minimally.
Traveling abroad lends you memories to last a lifetime. However, you don’t want those memories to be of a time when you were sick from food poisoning. Use the carefully compiled tips from this article to ensure you don’t get sick.
