Food safety regulations and surveillance in Bangkok, Thailand - with 5-year real world data

Abstract

Background: Food tourism is one of the major attractions in Thailand. Food safety plays an important role in ensuring the confidence and health of both travelers and locals. The regulations, real-world surveillance data, and foodborne outbreak reports in Thailand have not been previously compiled and summarized. This study aimed to describe food safety rules and regulations in Thailand and present real-world data encompassing five years, 2019–2024. Methods: Data are obtained on food safety surveillance conducted by the Food Sanitation Division under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) for 2019–2023, and outbreak reports in Bangkok from the Institute for Urban Disease Control (IUDC) for 2019–2024. Descriptive analyses are performed and compared to available studies on travelers’ diarrhea in visitors to Thailand. Results: During 2019–2023, 98% of food samples in Bangkok passed biological testing. Among contaminated samples, the most common pathogen found was E. coli (12.40% – 15.79%). When analyzing samples from street food vendors alone, 10/44 samples and 6/31 samples were found to be contaminated in 2022 and 2023, respectively. E. coli was identified in 9/10 contaminated samples in 2022 and 4/6 in 2023. Foods most likely to be contaminated were Thai desserts and raw seafood. During the same period, 22 diarrhea outbreaks were reported by the IUDC. Conclusions: As a popular destination for culinary tourism, travelers’ diarrhea remains one of the most common conditions discussed during pre-travel consultations for Thailand. This review demonstrates Thailand’s governmental efforts in enforcing food safety regulations and surveillance. The findings help inform travel medicine practitioners worldwide about travelers’ diarrhea in Thailand.