Hefei Food Safety

[Virginia9742]

I thought I would share my some of experiences with Hefei food.  When I first came to China three months ago, I visited Hefei since I knew I would be living here soon.  I ended up trying some street food, although it looked sketchy.  Sure enough, I had an "upset stomach" for the next five weeks.

Since that incident, I have avoided street food, though I have still gotten sick.  Two weeks ago I became sick and was not aware of just how sick I was. I woke up in the middle of the night sick as hell with a high fever and wanting to vomit, and made my way to the bathroom.  Almost collapsed a few times, and finally passed out on the bathroom floor, knocking over a bucket of water which helped to lower my fever.  My roommate found me unconscious on the bathroom floor and helped me.  I was tested the next day and it turns out I was infected with E. coli.  It took a week to get over the infection.

I am a little worried about becoming ill again, but I love the food here, so I will keep eating it with my fingers crossed.

[mjsuke75]

that street food, i am sorry is just nasty. i dont understand how people can eat it. same story here, got sick twice. never again.

[Aussie Mike]

This is a problem.

When I arrived in 2004, I developed a severe blood infection in the first 6 weeks of eating stinky tofu, had 10 bottles of antibiotics intravenously, a bottle morning and evening for 5 days.

Never been seriously sick since. I focus on trying not to touch railings or door handles but money itself carries so many nasties.
The few times I have been sick, I can trace back where and when I picked it up. e.g. Person walking down the carriage of the train, turns their head and coughs directly at me.

Make sure the street food you eat is cooked thoroughly and is still hot and the cook and kitchen show hygienic habits. Each time I proceeded to eat what I think is risky, 20 mins later I'm searching for a throne.

Remember,as in any travel situation you are being exposed to germs for the first time. You have already had your dose of bacteria and antibiotics as well as the reality adjustment in China so you should be fine. Your body is developing antibodies for these new invaders.

[kaibo 开 博]

I have been in China since 2004, although I did return to Australia to do short-term resource contracts in late 2004 & early 2005. I have now lived here since August 2005. Oh, I clearly forgot my 6th year anniversary. I have resided in several locations - Nanning in Guangxi, Wuhan in Hubei, & for more than 4yrs in Hefei. I have eaten in all sorts of places & only had an e-coli kind of food poisoning once across China -- that was in Nanning in March of 2005. However, it was unconfirmed because if I had have attended a hospital they would have quarantined me as SARS was still kicking around back then. It was an extremely dibilitating illness; fever, hot & cold sweats, shaking, vomiting, etc.

One must be cautious in a land where food safety has a lot to be desired, where kitchen workers & common people 'snot' with their hands, where a majority of people do not wash their hands after the washroom, where kitchen workers wear white clothing that appears it is washed once a month, where a hospital my daughter was admitted to had me scrubbing walls & light switches & the railings on the bed etc. A good piece of advice is to not eat where you can't see the kitchen. The other good advice is choose those restaurants that have the commercially wrapped crockery or use hot tea to rinse the plates before putting food in them.

I recall when I was in Malaysia; back in those days I usually chose to eat at a Muslim restaurant because it had the big glass windows where you could see the kitchen. The whole place was spotlessly clean. The food was magnificent yet simple; such as mackerel fish steaks & green beans with rice. I never got ill eating there. One morning I attended an Indian restaurant for breakfast. Of course breakfast was curried rice -- not cereal or toast! You can guess what happened next -- a repetitive cycle to the 'dunny.' Of course Indian & Muslim cultures generally use their hands to wash their arse -- the left hand that is! As any culinary expert knows, it takes two hands to prepare food in the kitchen! Need I say more!

Generally speaking, the guys perhaps get ill less often because many of them drink copious volumes of alcohol. As we know it can neutralize some bugs to a certain extent & also 'amber fluid' can flush the system irregardless of bugs. The best thing to do is limit the numbers of times that one eats from suspect street traders & also choose the right restaurants. Believe it or not vegetables are more susceptible to e-coli than meats are. I was somewhat shocked when I read that fact. Salads then are a real problem up here unless one prepares them at home. When I operated my AUS-UFO Cafe Bar in Hefei, I was incessantly clean. One cutting board for cooked foods and another for salads & the like. One can never be too careful. Washing your hands by carrying around those moist & hygienic hand towels -- the ones for baby are fine -- is a good idea also. I use them all the time when practical & for the girls a bag makes it easy.

Have fun exploring the taste sensations, toughen up to the bugs, & at the end of the day -- "When in China, do as the Chinese do" -- snot with your hands! The other piece of advice is do as I do -- eat at home!

[kaibo 开 博]

Food safety is always an issue that one thinks about. As you may know, I like to venture down along the Nanfei He river at the western end of town. It is a beautiful location for peace, quiet and the observation of wildlife. Amongst the tree & plant farms, adjacent to the canal that leads from the sluice gates from the Dongpu reservoir, there are some old houses & buildings. They are nestled in alongside aquaculture ponds that line the roadway and canal that enters on the eastern side of Bei Er Huan Road -- second ring road. You may walk in there from the ring road down some stairs that lead to the riverside roadways, or you may drive a car, moto or bicycle through there as well. It is one of several ways of getting into the region. Now back to my story.

There is a particular series of aquaculture ponds that has become somewhat of an eyesore next to the sluice canal. I have observed the practice of seeing how and what they are fed on and observed what must be a toxic habitat for them to live in. The little fish fry were put in there about 8 to 10 weeks ago I recall. They were so tiny one could barely  make out their shape. The water is a slimy, oily, smelly cesspit of used cooking oil, restaurant scraps, & refuse from the pits & drains around town. The stench can be so bad it just about makes one puke! For the life of me I have no idea how those little fish have managed to survive, let alone grow 'maximus gigantus' in such a short period of time. I am sure everyone has observed the little three-wheeled diesel trikes around town with the big blue drums on the back that collect & dump the kitchen refuse & drainage crap. Well it is known that some recycle the oils, that finally ends up being sold as cheap quality cooking oils in outlets around town. But some of the content of those drums gets used as "feed" in the aquaculture industry as well. Those little fish fry are now about 1kg sized "catfish" that are destined for the market. I was amazed just how rapidly they have grown in such a short period of time. Perhaps they are fed on hormones as well.

My questionable concerns are: first, oils are non soluble; second, by living in this oily environment these fish must absorb what I would estimate as toxic waste, oils & unknown shit. The toxins would permeate right through the fish. I recall an old power station alongside the coast back home in Sth Freo. The foolish administrators back in those days had dumped and buried PCBs in the limestone seawalls along the coast. PCBs are a known source of carcinogenic materials. The advice from local authorities was to not consume any fish that might be present in that particular region. The material that had seeped into the sea there had obviously permeated the flesh of the locallised fish population. I now draw the conclusion that, whatever toxins are present in the refuse material that has become the habitat of these fish, must find their way into the flesh of those fish. It is also well-known that "long xia" -- not sure of my pinyin - freshwater crustaceans, survive in the dirtiest refuse infested water imaginable. It has even been touted as a "sewerage pit" in some locations. Well it might be considered that anything that eats shit has to be shit eating.

Finally, I'll leave you with this little comment. A few years ago a couple named Keith & Vivian came to town. Keith had been an entrepreneurial businessman that started a business with hydroponic gardening in a pristine location north of Sydney in NSW. He told me a story of how every time he had eaten fish or long xia at restaurants in Hefei he would have dreams. He stated that the excess dreaming was a result of the toxins in the creatures. Not having been aware of that phenomena at the time, I do recall having the same experience. One night after having consumed fish I dreamt technicolour dreams, like 'tripping' on a hallucinogenic substance or something! Now although the technicolour dream and ensuing 'trip' was a pleasant experience. it made me sit up and take note of what Keith had shared. When it comes to food safety, one might consider, just what is in those fish we eat; just what is the toxic shock dished up to us in long xia? Something to think about isn't it.

Have sweet dreams folks!

[Aussie Mike]

And people wonder why I DON'T eat fish here...

[Joeyhf]

Food safety in China is a big issue.Look over the internet ,you'll find a lot of problems.I live in Baolyuan.I was waiting a long time for Wallmart (on the Huangshan Lu)opening as it's very close.Now feel a bit sad because Wallmart sells expired food.
I used to buy some rolls.I went there almost everyday evening and rolls looks like a week old but labels always show fresh date.Asked Staff why fresh rolls looks so bad??No answer.....They just said that rolls were produced in the morning. OK,I went there saturday morning at 9AM .All rolls  had a fresh date on the labels but were produced at least a week ago.WHY WALLMART STAFF CHEATING IT'S CUSTOMERS????WHERE IS FOOD QUALITY CONTROL????What Hefei food quality control officials doing??Just smoking in the office???
That's not only issue with rolls.There's a lot of other expired food in this Wallmart.

I went to several other Wallmart's in Hefei.All others seems to be fine just new one with nice painting on HuangShan Road is terrible.

Better go to nearest Tesco,Hualian or Joymart.They have better and fresh food... 

[ElinJonsson]

I am currently working on the opening of a spanish style restaurant, which will be located on 1912 street, next to the new discobar Tang.
We will be serving classical spanish meat dishes like entrecote, tenderloin, striploin etc and have a wine bodega with many different wines. We will open in the middle of october, hope to see you then! 

[kaibo 开 博]

That sounds like a great plan Elin. I ran my own cafe bar come hamburger restaurant in Hefei and it went quite well. I recovered my investment of 50,000 RMB after 5 months and then I sold it. I was lucky though because I had the support of some great foreigners that liked my drink prices and burgers.
 
One place you can be reasonably sure about quality goods for restaurants is from Metro. When we got our license to operate the Shushan govt. only wanted to know one thing, where we bought our produce. On producing the receipts from Metro they promptly provided the license. It was as easy as that.

Metro has a subsidiary company that markets through their outlets. It is called Star Farm.

http://en.starfarm.com.cn/
http://www.starfarm.com.tw/

As a firsthand user of their products, they certainly inspire confidence in quality. I particularly like the organic lamb products.

Having said that, with winter coming it is perhaps time to go stock the freezer.

Good luck with your venture.