Want some orange juice? Buy it at a grocery store

[Gaybutton]

After reading this article, I think it won't take much to convince you to do just that. I'll never buy it from street vendors again. Most vendors are probably perfectly legitimate, but since there is no way to know for sure, I'll be sticking to the name brands.
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Social Media Driven Nationwide Crackdown Finds Bottled OJ Contains Fecal Bacteria

1 June, 2016

Pattaya One reported how Facebook user, Chantharaphon Jidcharoen, wrote about a suspicious OJ seller she saw near Pattaya’s pier to Koh Lan.

Saying, “He filled the bottle with tap water and put in the leavening agent and shook it. Then he poured it into bagfuls and checked each bottle to see if the color was right. This is horrible.”

The social media driven juice crackdown has already seen the arrests of six migrant workers in Bangkok’s Chinatown on suspicion of selling fake juice, while reports of dodgy sellers are also popping up in more areas of social media.

Paisarn Dunkhum, deputy sec-gen of the Food and Drug Administration, told reporters Tuesday that authorities are sampling orange juice factories across Thailand to make sure that they indeed sell orange juice and not the sweetened, flavored water allegedly produced by a Vietnamese couple arrested Monday in Saraburi province after photos of their operation spread online.

“I’d like to ask the public to regularly observe and clearly ask sellers about the manufacturing process,” Paisarn was quoted as saying. “Don’t simply believe it because you merely see orange fruits and peels in front of the shops.”

There’s a xenophobic element to the crackdown, as it appears driven by a fear of non-Thais poisoning the orange juice supply for sale to Thais. The operation launched Tuesday evening in Bangkok’s Yaowarat district targeted foreign vendors, Manager Online reported.

Furthermore lab tests found orange juice confiscated from an illegal production ring last week was the real stuff after all, and not fake OJ as widely reported. The bad news? It contains bacteria commonly found in animal feces and therefore violates food safety laws.

And worse news: The Department of Medical Science ran the same tests on 12 other samples of OJ collected randomly from the Bangkok metropolitan area and found the same fecal bacteria in some of them.

“Sixty percent of our samples exceed the limit,” Apichai Mongkol, director of the Department of Medical Science, said Tuesday. “That means they aren’t clean enough. It’s also against the law, because the product didn’t meet the standards. It put the public at risk.”

Story and photos: http://pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/2247 ... rettyPhoto

See also: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.ph ... section=12

[lvdkeyes]

Nutritionists will tell you it's better to eat an orange than to drink orange juice.

[Alex]

From my experience, it's those who are overly cautious with regards to eating street food, putting ice cubes in their drinks, etc., who end up getting sick pretty often. While others who are less anal are doing just fine, well, most of the time.

I'm not sure if it's because they fail to "train" their immune system or because getting sick is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy (or, in some cases, even a way of life) for these pansies. Or maybe I just gain my insights from a strange sample group - but it is quite hilarious, like the guy I know who has always been the most anal when it comes to applying mosquito repellent being the one catching Dengue fever (a mild case, fortunately).

[Jun]

Other than a meat free diet, I have generally not been at all careful with the choice of where I eat and drink. Including buying fruit juice on the street & accepting ice cubes with my drinks.

However on one trip to Thailand, I suffered a digestive issue which didn't properly clear up for about a year. There are a couple of likely causes for that & the street fruit juice from outside Tuk Com was definitely at the right time of day to be a suspect. I've not tried that since. I also start the day with some probiotic tablets now as well.

[Gaybutton]

See the latest published on PATTAYA MAIL: http://www.pattayamail.com/news/pattaya ... dal-137829

[christianpfc]

I do occasionally buy orange juice from street vendors. So far, I never paid attention, but would have noticed absence of oranges and peels. I will check next time if everything matches.

When it comes to food hygiene, I 'm with Alex. I have seen dogs and chicken and ducks drinking water from puddles (and assume they don't get sick), why can't I? (No, I don't drink water from puddles, but I drink tap water everywhere in South-East Asia and didn't get sick so far.)

[thaiworthy]

However on one trip to Thailand, I suffered a digestive issue which didn't properly clear up for about a year. There are a couple of likely causes for that & the street fruit juice from outside Tuk Com was definitely at the right time of day to be a suspect. I've not tried that since. I also start the day with some probiotic tablets now as well.

The orange and peel are just for show. I'm convinced this stuff is mostly chemicals. It's a scam. It tastes like a bad glass of Tang. For other gastric problems, probiotics tablets are good as a general maintenance plan for good gut health. But a better solution is water kefir.

The best solution to optimize gut health is to consume organic fruits and vegetables. Some non-organic citrus might be OK, since it has a thick skin. Leafy vegetables are particularly susceptible. If you are worried about pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables, this graphic should come in handy. This is the famous "Clean Fifteen" list and the "Dirty Dozen." Self-explanatory, but the produce with the least amount of chemical residue might be acceptable in lieu of organic.

[Smiles]

Thai orange juice is god-awful anyway ~ even without the Dirty/Clean dichotomy. Just far too sweet for my taste.
So, I buy Tropicana or other such imported juice brand. Always available at Villa Market ... bring cash. Another plus is that Tropicana is absolutely swimming in paleolithic-ness.

I like this blurb from Alex (above) as well:

" ...From my experience, it's those who are overly cautious with regards to eating street food, putting ice cubes in their drinks, etc., who end up getting sick pretty often. While others who are less anal are doing just fine ... "