Food & Beverage Precautions

It is difficult, if not impossible, to guarantee the safety of food and beverages when traveling, especially in developing countries. Without strict public health standards, bacteria or parasites in food or water may go undetected and cause illness such as traveler's diarrhea. However, travelers can continue to enjoy local foods—this is part of the pleasure of international travel. Just be sure to follow food and water precautions and concentrate on eating the types of food that tend to be safest.

We take great care to make sure our guests eat well and safely and have rarely had severe problems outside of the normal travelers diarrhea that is impossible to avoid in most people (SORRY!!). The bottom line is that if you do what we say and eat what we tell you to eat, you should be fine!! 

Traveler's diarrhea is caused by something the traveler ate or drank. While it may not be possible to avoid diarrhea in certain high-risk destinations even with the strictest adherence to preventive measures, the risk can be minimized by following the guidelines below:

“Boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it"

Food and Beverages:

• Eat foods that have been thoroughly cooked & are still hot & steaming.
• Avoid raw vegetables and fruits that cannot be peeled. Vegetables like lettuce are easily contaminated and are very hard to wash well.
• When you eat raw fruit or vegetables that can be peeled, peel them yourself. (Wash your hands with soap first.) Do not eat the peelings.  It is recommended that you wash and dry the vegetable or fruit yourself.
• Avoid foods and beverages from street vendors. It is difficult for food to be kept clean on the street, and many travelers get sick from food bought from street vendors.
• Use sealed bottled water or chemically treated, filtered, or boiled water for drinking and preparing food. 
• Drink beverages made only with boiled water whenever possible (such as hot tea and coffee). Water boiled for any length of time (even 1 minute), at any altitude, is safe to drink.
• Carry safe water with you if you are going out for the day and where availability of safe water is not assured.
• At most lodging facilities, ample bottled water is supplied or can easily be acquired and we recommend the group start with bottled water and then subsequently place their names on their bottles and repeatedly fill them up from the bottled water in the large jugs each morning before leaving your lodging facility.
• There are NO PROBLEMS showering or brushing ones teeth in tap water. Just be careful not to swallow large amounts, and you’ll be fine. 
• Ask for drinks without ice unless the ice is made from bottled or boiled water. Avoid popsicles and flavored ices that may have been made with contaminated water.

You should NOT…

• Drink tap water. Even if locals do, visitors have not built up an immunity to it.
• Use ice unless it is made from boiled, bottled, or purified water. Freezing does not kill the organisms that cause diarrhea.
• Assume that water is safe because it is chlorinated. Chlorination does not destroy all the organisms that can make you ill.
• Drink from wet cans or bottles-the water on them may be contaminated. Dry wet cans/bottles before opening and clean all surfaces that will have contact with the mouth.
• Drink fruit juice unless it comes directly from a sealed container; otherwise it may have been diluted with tap water.