Beijing Street Food - Safe?

[ohitsgary]

I've heard many stories about the food hygiene in China. How safe is the street food in China, or specifically, in Beijing? What to avoid and What to look out for? Cheers.

[Hugh]

Well it depends how long you're there for. If you've only got a week then maybe don't risk losing three days of it to traveller's diarrhoea. But I genuinely think street food in China is fine; the locals eat it after all. It might take a little bit of acclimatising (although in my experience it's always been problem free) and after that you can always enjoy it.

[Silent]

When I travel I usually eat streetfood. I seldom had a problem with it. Three times I got diarhea. Twice, Tunesia and Cuba, I'm pretty sure it was the water I drank. Once in Guiyang at the end of a 3 month trip through China cause unknown to me.

Many people are afraid of the cheap roadside restaurants. I think however that they're a very safe option, specially if you behave sensibly. You can pretty much see everything that's going on. So if they mistreat the food you can see it while in a proper restaurant you've no clue what happens to your food in the kitchen. Also, streetfood is local food. People know how to handle it. This may be quite different when you eat western style food.

In general, food is seldom a real issue. If it's cooked well there's very little that can go wrong. Raw salads may be a different thing mainly because it may be washed with unsafe water. I guess it happens everywhere, but in Fenghuang I saw at many restaurants the veggies being washed in the river. Essentially an open sewer! Poor water quality (for drinking and washing) is by far the biggest risk for falling ill.

[The BLCU Blog]

I agree with Silent in regards to watching out for foods that come into contact with bad water. I've also heard that melons can be left in water so that they absorb it and blow up in size, though I regularly ate melon in Beijing and seemed to be fine. Saying that, I did have diarrhoea quite regularly there and in the end had to get some pills to replace the bacteria in my stomach (or is it intestines?) which had been flushed out and therefore food wasn't being digested properly.

It's hard to pinpoint what was giving me the diarrhoea when I was eating so much variety and regularly having street food too. That doesn't mean the street food was the problem though as it could easily have been water which stuff I'd eaten was washed in.

I'd say enjoy the street food in Beijing, but be smart and don't eat something that you are clearly suspicious of with regards to its hygiene. Also, during summer I generally stayed away from meat-based foods sold from mobile street carts when then they're sitting out in the heat all day, even though locals seem to eat it.

So come to your own decisions about how far you're willing to go with street food and learn from experience. You'll probably have a few weeks where your body is getting used to it and your immune system stepping up a gear or two. During that time you might have an upset stomach but it's to be expected when you first get to China and no big deal. On the other hand, you might be completely unaffected.

[Lost in Mong Kok]

In China I've had more problems with poisoning from restaurants than I have with street food.

When its those Halal Kabab sticks and meat-bread pocket kabab things as well you can see if the meat is cooked or not and this generally kills most bacteria which will make you ill, unless the vegetables or meat itself is absolutely rancid.

I'd say the hygiene levels are similar to those at street food stalls in Western countries - appalling. So I tend to get freshly cooked stuff rather than anything else.

I'd probably stay away from sea food. That always has a way of making me sick if its slightly unfresh.

[abcdefg]

What to avoid and What to look out for?

Look for high turnover, a place that's busy. Look for a place where the food is cooked in front of you while you wait, not a place where it was pre-cooked some time before.

This is general advice, not specific to Beijing. Most people, natives and foreigners alike, will get sick every now and then, regardless of how careful they are. Be prepared in case that happens.

[Freek]

Street food rox. dude, you cant get away from it. especially after a few beers!! dig it!!!

[jbradfor]

What others said.

My only additional suggestion, if you're not used to eating street food (or not used to eating food in China), is that you need to be able to separate the disgusting/unpleasant from what can actually cause you harm. There might be a number of things that don't meet Western hygiene standards, but unless it would actually make you sick, just ignore it.

[luozhen]

Street food that is cooked is as clean as most restaurant food. The big difference is quality, especially meat. The plastic baggie/styrofoam container they put the food in is probably cleaner than the dishes at most restaurants.

[amandagmu]

Agree that you should try and only visit places with high turnover and where they make it in front of you. I love jianbing 煎饼 but make sure you go to a cart that has other customers or where the items look fairly new/fresh. In the summer months avoid anything at all that has been sitting out for a while - if you go to a place, for example, that has some pre-made bing (the pancakes) or anything similar do NOT let them give you a pre-made thing that might have been baking in the sun for god knows how long. Make them make you a new one, and like I said look at the ingredients laying out first. If they aren't rancid (like the above poster suggested) they're going to fry/roast/etc at a high temp anyways so you should be fine. I would personally avoid the sushi cart ladies... I don't think they can really keep all those raw ingredients fresh enough to guarantee you won't get sick.

Restaurant kitchens in some small places look like hazard zones that would never pass any safety inspection, and forget about the idea that the staff is washing their hands after going to the toilet (hello, e. coli!) since most of those places don't provide soap in the restroom or send staff out to the public restrooms (also no soap). Soap is a foreign concept here outside of official central bureau buildings, heavy tourist spots, some new shopping malls, and places where westerners will be abundant or the place is run by westerners (e.g., Starbucks and McDonald's, western hotels, The Bookworm, or the Village in Beijing). I wouldn't have thought so much about this (yes it's gross anyways but sometimes we don't think that much about it) but I recently spent some time at home in Germany.... and if you know what happened there in May-->now with the e. coli you would understand why I've begun to freak out about things like raw salads in Beijing restaurants, in a country where most people don't wash their hands after going to the toilet!

[driftman]

I have to say, whenever I look into a Chinese restaurant kitchen (not just street food) I find it looks pretty scary. However, I have never had any problems, nor has anyone I know (despite maybe a little heavier toilet usage for a day or two), not sure if its how Chinese food is made (often stir fried at high temperatures) or they actually do pay more attention that it looks like.

But to not eat street food would mean missing out on a lot and there doesnt seem to be much of a risk.

And look at the Germans, they wash their hands all the time and still got E-coli all over the place, it obviously doesnt help that much ;)

[skylee]

And look at the Germans, they wash their hands all the time and still got E-coli all over the place, it obviously doesnt help that much

This doesn't sound fair.

[amandagmu]

They're pretty sure the e. coli was spread from canteen workers and a caterer not washing hands in Germany--in at least a few dozen cases that they can trace. I've been posting/following a HUGE thread about this over at www.toytowngermany.com . Lots of useful information about e. coli and food poisoning and what not over the last month and a half. I've posted my own experiences in China....

I'm surprised, driftman, that you have had no problems and nor has anyone you've known; most people I've known who've spent some time in China have gotten food poisoning at least one time while here. In my case, the first time it happened this time around was 3 months after I arrived, likely from a stir-fried eggplant dish I ate at a hole-in-the wall xinjiang place in a hutong near Andingmen. Considering the only other thing I'd eaten with it was some of that round, flat bread (I was by myself) I'm fairly certain the eggplant must have been rancid. The sauce was too heavy to really tell though, which imo is the main problem with a lot of Northern cuisine anyways -- hide rotten vegetables but stir-frying them with a bunch of heavy sauces for a few minutes and no one would ever be able to actually taste the vegetable anyways.