When the Unpleasant Strikes: Food Poisoning in China

When the Unpleasant Strikes: Food Poisoning in China
Oct 15, 2014 By Danielle Martin , eChinacities.com

Food poisoning is no walk in the park.  From minor stomach upsets to downright dangerous episodes that require hospitalisation, the state of food handling and processing in China is cause for much concern.  Over the last ten years there has been a whole raft of food safety incidents that have thrust China into the spotlight concerning food produce. Unfortunately, it can often be tricky to pinpoint exactly what the culprit was, with a common myth being that it must have been the last thing you ate.  It can in fact take between 2-5 days or sometimes a couple of weeks until your body begins to display symptoms, depending on the particular bacteria that you have ingested and its incubation period, according to www.nhs.uk. However, there are a number of things that we can do to lower the chances of coming into contact with a food borne illness. 

When the Unpleasant Strikes: Food Poisoning in China
Photo: Evil Erin

Let’s take a look at the situations where you are most likely to be struck down with a bout of food poisoning, how to prevent it and how best to manage it in the event of an episode.

Food safety

Food safety in China leaves a lot to be desired. A litany of food safety scandals in recent years have further lowered the perceptions that people have concerning food preparation standards. The most famous of all has to be the 2008 baby milk scandal (which followed the 2004 counterfeit baby formula scandal) whereby 294,000 babies were struck down with kidney disease as a result of melamine poisoning, causing six infant deaths. Other famous food safety outrages include the ‘gutter oil’ exposés – investigations of this so-called oil thanks to the process it undergoes by being recycled and sold again as a cheaper alternative to normal cooking oil. Sources of the oil included restaurant fryers, sewers and the discarded parts of animals that were boiled in order to extract the oil.

More recently, across 2013/14, a series of meat scandals have occurred, from cat meat being sold as rabbit in Huai’an City, to rat and fox meat inadvertently being sold as lamb and perhaps most memorably, the 15,000 pigs found floating in Huangpu River in March 2013 after a crackdown on the illegal pig trade in Zhejiang Province.

A number of contamination scandals have also hit the headlines; from contaminated ginger laden with banned pesticides back in 2008, contaminated eggs containing melamine also in 2008, contaminated dumplings tainted with insecticide again in 2008, contaminated strawberries for export in 2012 which infected over 11,000 children in Germany … the list appears to be endless! With all of this wrongdoing, it’s no wonder that food poisoning is a very real concern among expats. 

So where is food safety going wrong and how can avoid any ill effects?

Standards of hygiene and public education

The 2013 Food Control Review found that the underlying causes for food borne illnesses during the last decade in China were due to human factors. Key points of the review noted that unhygienic food practices, human negligence, regulation violations as well as intentional criminal activity to cut corners were suggestive of “a weak regulatory regime for food safety” along with insufficient surveillance systems and inspections.     

Public awareness and hygiene in China remains at an extremely low level with cross contamination of raw meat and fruit and vegetables rife through not washing hands or using the same chopping boards for preparation. As recently as July 2014, the expired meat scandal exhibited footage showing factory workers picking up dropped meat from the floor and throwing it back into the mixer as well as rubbish and sewage on the floor of the factory in the immediate vicinity of food. Elsewhere in smaller villages where education is scarce, increasing amounts of pesticides are regularly found in fruit and vegetables due to lack of awareness by local farmers as to their potency. In factories, meat that is clearly ‘off’ because it smells has been found mixed in with fresh meat to ward off the smell.

When are we most likely to succumb to food poisoning?

Surprisingly, eating street food isn’t the worst culprit. Eating at established restaurants can often be to blame with open air buffets being the source of many bacteria. In places where food has been left to sit out for a long time, the food is most likely not fresh and has been breeding germs.  Another instance to be careful of is food that arrives lukewarm – if it isn’t piping hot right through then it is a indicator that it is undercooked along with cold preparations such as salads that have been rinsed first in water which is often unsafe to drink. Good advice to follow is the long restaurant queues rule: if there are lines of people waiting to eat, it’s usually a good bet that the place is sanitary and hygienic with a good reputation.  

Treatment

If you become ill with food poisoning it is important to stay hydrated, especially in the event of severe fluid loss when you are displaying symptoms such as a a high temperature, sweating, diarrhoea or vomiting. Self-medicating by drinking re-hydration salts is also an option if you don’t feel that your symptoms warrant a trip to the doctor. However, it is imperative to keep an eye on symptoms worsening.

It is a good idea to make sure that you are familiar with your local area in case you have an emergency so that you know where the local hospital is.  According to a number of Chinese people I have spoken with, there are smaller, local community hospitals that are less popular with locals than the bigger international ones. It was explained to me that there is a stigma attached to them as local people often believe the care to be sub-standard, citing that the best doctors would choose to work  in and/or be ‘head hunted’ to work at the renowned hospitals rather than the smaller ones. 

Check out where these local hospitals are as often they are much quieter and less busy than the big ones for the reasons mentioned above. 

If you need to visit the doctor, they will carry out blood tests to ascertain the type of food borne bacteria that you have contracted – which could be anything from gastroenteritis, salmonella, norovirus or listeriosis amongst others – before prescribing antibiotics.

Be aware that in China the doctors do not operate outside of the hospitals in their own GP practices as they may do in the west- going to the hospital is only way to see a doctor, no matter how small the ailment.

However, bearing all of this in mind it looks like a good stash of hand sanitizer, Pepto Bismol and a healthy dose of caution also wouldn’t hurt in warding off ‘traveller’s tummy’.

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Keywords: food safety in China food poisoning in China

4 Comments

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macjp

Is this just a Chinese problem? Has any one seen Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" in the US? Jesus!! There were kitchen's there, and one particulary in New Orleans (Cajun) that could have killed half a city!!!!

Oct 19, 2014 17:36 Report Abuse

hi2u

I have yet to be food poisoned so severely in my three years of being in China. The worst thing that happened to me was a stomachache and the runs for a few hours the next morning after dinner the night before. I credit my lack of stomach ailments to my years of conditioning eating dirty Mexican food prior to coming to China.

Oct 17, 2014 15:50 Report Abuse

Garbo

I swear I never got sick when I first came to China in the 90s. I was small town and cities. I even ate street food and never had stomach problems. I don't know what happened. It seems restaurants have really gone downhill.

Oct 15, 2014 20:51 Report Abuse

Quinn68

There are many times in China when I've gone hungry rather than risk eating questionable food. I carry my own course of antibiotics prescribed in my home country and, as the article recommends above, carry hand sanitizer wherever I go. There's no taking chances in a country that has idiots serving tainted food just so they can save a few kuai.

Oct 15, 2014 03:11 Report Abuse