8 min read · Sep 11, 2017
In general, refrain from eating raw fruit and vegetables unless you wash, dry and peel them yourself. Bananas and oranges are great because you can peel them without a knife — and they make ideal snacks — but take care not to touch the inner fruit with un-washed hands.
Salads should be avoided unless you make them yourself. To eat salad greens or unpeeled fruits such as grapes, first wash them thoroughly to remove any dirt and insects, and then soak them in a solution of pure water with apple cider vinegar, colloidal silver, grapefruit seed extract or iodine in order to kill any lurking microorganisms. Use the amount recommended by the manufacturer, or 1/4 cup per liter for cider vinegar. I don’t recommend using potassium permanganate, as it is poisonous. Soaking time varies from 15–30 minutes. After soaking, rinse again with purified water.
Be discriminating about where you take fresh fruit, fruit juice and fruit lassi. Ultimately, they are best avoided unless you make them yourself. Most of the juice-walas don’t keep their equipment clean, nor do they wash the fruits with pure water. Moreover, they often add water to the juice. Packaged fruit juice is usually OK, but checks that the packages are properly sealed. Also Visit — Luxury tours in India
Tea is almost always safe because the water is usually boiled a long time, and the same goes for coffee. If in doubt about boiling times, ask. If you take milk with your tea, make sure it has also been properly boiled. Usually masala chai (spiced tea) is made with the milk and water boiled together, although you can also get the milk separately. South Indian coffee is also made with milk. Avoid tea, coffee or unsealed drinks from dispensers as the machines may not have been properly cleaned. Carbonated drinks like co*ke, Pepsi, Thums Up, etc. are generally safe. However, avoid the diet versions and anything else made with aspartame. Research has indicated that it is a carcinogen even in normal conditions, but the toxicity increases dramatically when exposed to heat.
Dairy products can be risky. In hot weather, avoid all dairy products except curd (yogurt) unless you are sure they have been refrigerated properly — which will not be the case if there has been a power outage without a backup generator. Curd is safe if it is properly made and hasn’t been sitting uncovered where flies and dust can get on it. Since it is made at room temper are, it doesn’t have to be refrigerated, although it becomes sour if it isn’t. If there are many power outages and the weather is hot, you really have to be careful about dairy products. When buying dairy products, check whether there is a generator (known as a “genset” in much of India) and whether it has been running. Ask around to find out which dairy is the best. A lot of dairy products are made from buffalo milk rather than cow’s milk, especially in the North. It’s much fattier than cow’s milk and has a stronger taste and smell. If you want only cow’s milk, you have to ask for it.
Lassi, a delightful drink that is made from yogurt, is usually safe as long as water, ice or fresh fruit hasn’t been added to it. Many people never add water, although from an Ayurvedic perspective, lassi is better that way. If it’s made with water, the water should be purified.
Milk must always be boiled unless you are opening a fresh package and you are certain it has been pasteurized (though with local brands, that may not be an absolute certainty). Ayurvedic doctors recommend boiling milk so that it foams up three times (taking it off the heat for a short time in-between) to render it more digestible as well as safe, but this might not always be adequate, especially at higher altitudes. Unpasteurized milk is extremely risky and can be a source of tuberculosis. Sometimes milk is watered down or adulterated, and this can be the case even with packaged milk.
Ice cream (my ultimate comfort food!) is best avoided, but if you really crave some, be discriminating about it. If you have even the slightest suspicion that the ice cream has melted and refrozen — a great risk with frequent power outages and no backup generator — don’t eat it. Improperly frozen ice cream is a common source of food poisoning. If the ice cream comes in a wrapper or other package and you see even a slight opening or tear, or if it seems unclean or suspicious looking in any way, don’t even think about eating it. Never take ice cream from a street vendor or a low-class place, or even from a high-class one that doesn’t have its own generator, nor from any restaurant that isn’t squeaky clean. There’s just too much danger of contamination.
Indian ice cream is often not up to Western standards hygienically. But it also tends to have more synthetic additives. If you are living in India and you really love ice cream, your best option is to buy an ice cream maker and make your own using properly pasteurized cream.
Vegetables, rice, dal, chapatis, idlis and dosas are usually safe, as long as they are thoroughly cooked and served fresh and hot. Avoid eating any foods that have flies on them, or cooked food that has been sitting around for a while, especially if it’s cold. Getting it reheated isn’t a guarantee that it will be OK.
India’s cuisine has many wonderful deep-fried delicacies like samosas, pakoras and puris, which are difficult to resist. However, it’s necessary to be discriminating about where you get them and be sure they are hot and fresh. Although you might think that deep-frying would kill all the microorganisms, this isn’t necessarily the case. Deep fried foods can also make you sick, either because the oil is bad or because the high heat has not penetrated all the way to the center of the food. Paneer pakoras, for instance, can give you food poisoning if the paneer has been left without refrigeration in hot weather (as I know from personal experience). Also, mishandling after preparation can contaminate food that would have otherwise been OK. Never take pani-puris from a street vendor. The water used in the preparation is virtually always impure.
Non-vegetarian food of any kind must be especially well cooked. Eating undercooked meat etc. is an invitation for a serious case of food poisoning. Shellfish should be avoided altogether. Since meat, seafood and chicken are commonly mishandled in preparation, even non-vegetarians may want to consider a vegetarian diet while they are in India. Passing through the lanes a where butchers have their shops may be enough to convert many prople to vegetarianism, at least temporarily. if sight id not for the faint of stomach. The vegetarian Cuisine of India, on the other hand, is so marvelous and incredibly varied, that forgoing meat is no great hardship.
Packaged biscuits are generally safe from a microbial point of view, as are packaged potato chips and similar snacks.
The packet of spices etc. wrapped in betel leaf that is sold everywhere on the streets and that is often served after meals is not safe. Pan is a mild intoxicant that is supposed to be a digestive aid. Chewing pan is rather messy, as you have to spit it out. Lower-class apartment buildings and office buildings often I have stairwell corners stained red with pan. Many people chew pail instead of smoking, but pan is also somewhat addictive. Moreover, it not only stains the teeth and the mouth with repeated use, it also rots the teeth. Since all of the ingredients are raw, it can also lead to a bout of Delhi Belly, so it’s better to avoid it. If you do take pan, it’s best to stick to the simpler varieties.
Restaurants often serve a mouth freshener made of a mixture of fennel seeds etc. at the end of the meal, often with tile hill or your change sitting on top. Apart from whatever might he lurking on the currency, many people may have had their hands in it if there’s no spoon, so you may want to skip it. If you like to have a mouth freshener after meals, you may want to carry a little tin filled with your own mix.
In General, avoid buying food from street vendors. Some people eat street food regularly and go for many months or years without having any trouble, while others-even Indians-get sick almost everyt time. Non-Indians are more prone to getting sick from street food, though not necessarily every time. However, getting sick even once is too often, especially if you end up in the hospital.
If you do patronize the street vendors, be discriminating about the cleanliness of the stand and how the food is prepared. Choose a vendor who has plenty of customers, and try to watch for a couple of minutes to see how he works before you decide if you want to eat there. In any case, never accept food that is already cooked, even if the vendor insists that it was taken off the grill
Just seconds before you walked up. The food should be cooked in front of you and handed to you immediately on something clean and dry.
Many foods are served wrapped in newspaper, which isn’t too bad if the newspaper is clean. On the other hand, you can assume that any plates or cups used by street vendors are filthy. Normally they are rinsed in cold, dirty water and wiped with an even dirtier rag, which does nothing more than evenly distribute the germs.
Alcoholic beverages are safe from microorganisms, but stick to reputable brands. Home-brewed liquor, which is sometimes served at weddings (most commonly in Gujarat, which is a dry state, but also in other places), is risky because it is often adulterated with substances that are not fit for human consumption, and you are more likely to get sick from it than to have a good time. Hundreds or possibly thousands of people die from bad booze every year in India, and many more become blind from it. Sometimes due to circ*mstances beyond your control you may find yourself having to eat questionable food. If this happens to you, take a couple of bismuth tablets (like Pepto-BismolTM) before you eat. This prevents many disease-causing microorganisms from being absorbed into your system by lining the stomach. While it’s a good preventative measure, it’s not advised to do this every day for more than three weeks.
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