Food safety whilst travelling in India - 01

 

Contrary to most supercilious, patronising and condescending write-ups on domestic travel in India that many of us may have seen, I have yet to suffer a bad stomach due to food when on the road or in the trains, but then again there are simple basics to follow. Anywhere in the world, incidentally, and not just in India.

I love meat. But Number 1 on my no-go list when travelling is meat.

Non-vegetarian food, especially mince meat in any form, and especially highly spiced curries and kababs based on mystery meats, are by their very nature, suspect, globally, unless you see the meat with the bone attached prancing or swimming in front of you, or nearby. Anything that has been in transit, cold chain or not, and then stored, has a reasonable chance of being tainted. 

I do not say this lightly - storing of food in freezers was amongst the most serious and important cross-domain functions going on ships. The engineers needed to ensure that the fridge rooms (all four or more) functioned absolutely perfectly, the deck side guys ran the checks and balances as well as stowed things properly, and the saloon catering persons needed to ensure that we were doing our jobs whilst ensuring that the frozen or chilled food was kept in perfect condition.

And well segregated. Which I observe, often does not happen ashore, globally.

Whether carcasses, or fish, or proceesed food, or dairy products, or fresh vegetables, or fruits, or dry rations - eggs, ice-cream, yoghurts, and cheese. There was a separate place for each one of these items in our walk-in as well as box freezers. There was a process on how they were to be thawed. 

And most of all, there were stand-bye SOPs if the any one of the fridge rooms packed up or, one of those realities, if a dead body or human remains had to be secured in a fridge room till we reached the next port.

(The coldest fridge room, the fish freezer, would be emptied, and the body or human remains placed there. We would then attempt to consume the fish which had been removed prior arrival of the bory or human remains as soon as possible, or it would be pickled, made into fish cutlets/fish cakes, breaded into fingers, anything to save the food)

Today when I see the kitchens and freezers of stand-alone restaurants, or even 5-star hotels, fair enough, they don't save up human remains for freezing. But there are a whole lot of other dead animals and veggies stored, very often in a single freezer. 

Can you imagine fish and poultry together? Or mutton and milk? Or pork and fresh fruit? These things are just not done on ships.

So, safer in India, to stick with vegetarian restaurants whilst on the road. At least they wouldn't keep anything other than vegetables and fruit inside. And fresh vegetables are available all the year round in India. Seasonal, fresh, and cheap.

(This does not apply to meat on the hoof. Which is what armies march on. I have seen this, fresh meat, also available in India. Off the beaten path, usually, and seldom, if ever, in towns or intermodal exchange locations like airports, railway stations, bus terminals or food courts.)

(To be continued)