Food Safety in China
2:55 PM
Hey Everyone,
I don't know about everyone else, but I am still sleeping a lot more than I did prior to the trip. It hasn't been unusual for me to sleep until twelve on weekends. I am sure part of it is jetlag and part of it is exhaustion from the trip. Anyways, I wanted to touch base about some thing I learned in China.
The first is that the lack of health standards with food and beverage locations is far different than what we experience here. Amazingly, I did not get sick at all while I was over there. To my best recollection, I don't think anyone had any issues with the food. The main reason for this is most likely due to our ages. Everyone that was there was in a healthy immune state in respect to age. However, elderly people and younger people would not have faired the same. This is a common characteristic and needs to be taken into account in future travels. Also, everyone seemed to be healthy prior to and during the trip other than Addison's migraine, which is not an influential condition to the immune system. Another reason for our sustained health is probably just dumb luck.
If I had run into these forms of food and beverage vendors in the United States, I would have gone screeching for the door. Maybe not in college or with enough alcohol in my system but any other time of course. I think a major reason my reaction was not the same in China was due to the sense of relaxation associated with a vacation to another country. Also, it probably was due to the regular existence of these forms of vendors, and the presence of so many other people frequenting these locations play. In the United States, these types of shops are few and far between, which prevents them from normalizing to the same extent they were in China.
I don't know if anyone noticed, but I did not see any postings for health department standards and ratings in any of these locations. I am sure the lack of visibility to this form of generally accepted scoring lowers consumer standards immensely. In the United States, if I see a rating lower than a ninety, I begin to get skeptical about the food service standards. Part of this is due to my background in food service and knowing the amount of violations it takes to get these scores. If most people actually knew how much a restaurant can get away with because of a lazy health inspector, it would make them cringe. Given what I know about standards over here, I really do wonder what went on in China's food and beverage vendors.
If anyone is interested in learning more about the food safety standards for Chinese Vendors see below:
https://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/enewsletter/china-an-overview-of-the-new-food-safety-law/
Thanks to everyone for an amazing trip. I can't wait for the Galapagos Islands.
Jason Alpert
I don't know about everyone else, but I am still sleeping a lot more than I did prior to the trip. It hasn't been unusual for me to sleep until twelve on weekends. I am sure part of it is jetlag and part of it is exhaustion from the trip. Anyways, I wanted to touch base about some thing I learned in China.
The first is that the lack of health standards with food and beverage locations is far different than what we experience here. Amazingly, I did not get sick at all while I was over there. To my best recollection, I don't think anyone had any issues with the food. The main reason for this is most likely due to our ages. Everyone that was there was in a healthy immune state in respect to age. However, elderly people and younger people would not have faired the same. This is a common characteristic and needs to be taken into account in future travels. Also, everyone seemed to be healthy prior to and during the trip other than Addison's migraine, which is not an influential condition to the immune system. Another reason for our sustained health is probably just dumb luck.
If I had run into these forms of food and beverage vendors in the United States, I would have gone screeching for the door. Maybe not in college or with enough alcohol in my system but any other time of course. I think a major reason my reaction was not the same in China was due to the sense of relaxation associated with a vacation to another country. Also, it probably was due to the regular existence of these forms of vendors, and the presence of so many other people frequenting these locations play. In the United States, these types of shops are few and far between, which prevents them from normalizing to the same extent they were in China.
I don't know if anyone noticed, but I did not see any postings for health department standards and ratings in any of these locations. I am sure the lack of visibility to this form of generally accepted scoring lowers consumer standards immensely. In the United States, if I see a rating lower than a ninety, I begin to get skeptical about the food service standards. Part of this is due to my background in food service and knowing the amount of violations it takes to get these scores. If most people actually knew how much a restaurant can get away with because of a lazy health inspector, it would make them cringe. Given what I know about standards over here, I really do wonder what went on in China's food and beverage vendors.
If anyone is interested in learning more about the food safety standards for Chinese Vendors see below:
https://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/enewsletter/china-an-overview-of-the-new-food-safety-law/
Thanks to everyone for an amazing trip. I can't wait for the Galapagos Islands.
Jason Alpert
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