Foods Not to Eat When Traveling
For most people, eating is generally part of the travel experience. However, eating comes with illness risk especially when the source of the consumed food has the potential to be contaminated. That’s why you should know things that you should not eat when you travel.
Tap Water
Contaminated water is among the leading illness causes for travelers and non-travelers. Pathogens that cause most travelers’ cholera, diarrhea, and rotavirus among other illnesses are spread through contaminated water. That’s why these illnesses affect travelers that visit places that have poor water storage hygiene and sanitation. It’s therefore important that you avoid drinking tap water when you travel. If you must drink tap water, conduct some research in advance to know whether there are water safety issues at your travel destination.
Ice
Pathogens make drinking tap water a risk. Freezing water does not kill pathogens. Therefore, ice comes with risk just like tap water. If your travel destination has unsafe water, do not consume ice. Realistically, you can’t tell where ice came from or how it was made when traveling. Therefore, unless you are certain that safe water was used to make ice, skip it. Also avoid ice-blended cocktails. When you crave for a cold drink, get a refrigerated bottled beer or canned soda.
Prepared Food
Whenever flies find their way into food, they cause contamination in unsavory ways. That’s because their legs have traces of what they have landed on recently including rotten trash and feces. That means they spread pathogens to everything that they land on. Street food and buffet is prone to these insects. Therefore, avoid prepared food especially when it is served outside. Ideally, avoid it completely whenever you travel.
If you must eat out when traveling, go for clean vegetables and fruits. Nevertheless, be careful to ensure that even the vegetables and fruits that you eat are cleaned with safe water.