At this time of year, many travelers are worried about catching a cold or the flu, but this should not distract them from focusing on the primary traveler issue: avoiding foodborne illness.  Foodborne illnesses can strike at any time, putting your travel plans on hold and making you miserable. Fortunately you don’t need to earn your PhD online to avoid foodborne illness abroad. With a little precaution you can avoid having your travel ruined by contaminated food.

Illness can result from improper food handling, resulting from contamination or poor hygiene on the part of the cook or server. In some cases, food that simply isn’t stored at appropriate temperatures can cause devastating gastrointestinal illness. As much as possible, make sure your food is prepared hygienically from properly preserved ingredients. For example, check your restaurant surroundings before deciding the cleanliness of the establishment. You should make sure that cooks and servers use gloves while preparing food. Furthermore, if possible, check to see that the facility has adequate food storage units so you can assure that your food is stored safely.

When eating buffet-style, it’s wise to be the first person to select your food from the tray as it is refilled. Buffets are often contaminated when diners sneeze, cough, or breathe onto the food. In addition, many buffets contain perishable dishes that aren’t maintained at proper temperatures. Eggs and dairy, especially, may not be safe for consumption if left at room temperature. When eating from buffets or a selection of dishes that have been sitting out, choose carefully and avoid foods that may spoil easily. If you are ever weary of a food’s quality, don’t hesitate to ask for another dish. You are, after all, the customer.

Finally, proper hygiene can prevent the transmission of several foodborne illnesses. Wash your hands thoroughly before and after meals, and avoid shaking hands or coming in close contact with others before eating. Finally, if coughing or sneezing, do so into your elbow and/or armpit area.

With a little know-how and conscientious eating, you can avoid having your travel ruined by foodborne illness; for more information, revisit the post Eating Safely: What can I do.

Author: Elaine Hirsch
Elaine Hirsch is kind of a jack-of-all-interests, from education and history to medicine and videogames. This makes it difficult to choose just one life path, so she is currently working as a writer for various education-related sites and writing about all these things instead.

Photo by nakedsky.

Escherichia coli (ETEC) - the bacteria that most commonly attacks travelers

A recent post on the Uncornered Market blog addresses the not-so-delicate topic of “how to travel without hugging the bowl.”   Though this is sometimes unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself and your vacation from a gastrointestinal attack.

More than 200 foodborne diseases have been identified worldwide and include traveler’s diarrhea, Hepatitis A, typhoid fever, cholera, salmonella, and E. coli. For travelers, the most common foodborne disease is — you guessed it — traveler’s diarrhea.  What causes it? Generally it’s caused by bacteria, often Escherichia coli (ETEC). According to the CDC,  between 20% and 50% of travelers develop diarrhea.

Where should I be extra careful? The World Health Organization (WHO) says, “It most commonly affects persons traveling from an area of more highly developed standards of hygiene and sanitation to a less developed one” and reminds us that “While the risks are greater in poor countries, locations with poor hygiene may be present in any country.”  The CDC says that high-risk destinations are developing countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

What’s wrong in these countries? Developing countries often lack either food regulations or the resources to enforce them. The Codex Alimentarius Commission is a joint organization of the WHO and the FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) that suggests voluntary food standards, but countries aren’t required to follow them. You can see the member countries of Codex here.

What can I do to stay healthy? The key is getting rid of the bacteria and viruses that cause disease.  Minimally, use the same judgment abroad that you would use when eating in your own neighborhood: Don’t dine in establishments that don’t appear clean or that have a bad reputation.  Make sure your food is cooked properly — whereas you might like your food a little rare, you may not want to leave that judgment up to the cook in a foreign country.  And when it comes to water, always choose bottled over tap, but know that sometimes bottled water isn’t what it appears to be. A colleague was in a resort recently where we saw employees filling up the bottles from a tap.  Perhaps the source was filtered and fine (many hotels have their own special systems to purify their drinking water), but who knows.  Ice is also a no-no.

The WHO has five basic guidelines that they cover in their traveler’s brochure Prevention of foodborne disease: Five keys to safer food.   You should also check out the CDC destination pages — each page has country specific tips about food and water. For instance, the guide for France recommends avoiding unpasteurized dairy and washing hands, while the guide for Kenya adds comments about water, street vendors, and cooked food.

Do you have any destination-specific advice to share or, worse, horror stories from the proverbial trenches?