Food Handling

Okay, Taiwan is full of undercooked meat, eggs and poultry. In fact asking to have food cooked properly typically gets a raised eyebrow or the kitchen help laughter as to why would this idiot want his food overcooked. Raw eggs on top of Italian noodles, to semi warm meat on your plate to sashimi. Poor safe handling (I.E. raw meat cut in the same place as vegetables to be served raw) in every form imaginable is practiced almost everywhere you go. Meat (cow and pork namely) is moved in large blue trucks with the meat swinging in the air picking up road dust in 30+degree heat, brought to stores, markets and left on plates exposed to flies and people walking by, casually placed on the same cutting board that hasn't been cleaned in days and frequently is made out of wood where even when cleaned still has bacterias. Another day or three pass by in the markets without air conditioning or cold storage as the meat is purchased, and the only safeguard between you and that meat is how well you cook it. Nobody complains, thinks it strange or out of place, and they wonder why botulism and salmonella are frequent. In fact one popular medicine for 'bad stomach's' in Taiwan comes from Japan. That medicine is actually used to fight dysentery when Japanese soldiers would go to war in undeveloped countries. But here its just another over the counter medicine like asprin (which is actually now regulated and has to be sold by a licensed dispenser of medicines). This is one of the few places where Taiwan does not excel over China in sanitation, and being compared to a country where little kids play in the open septic ditches when they are bored is not a good thing. Telling the waitress there is a hair in your food elicits a casual finger in your food to remove the offending object, and fighting the cockroaches from your plate is not unheard of. I have been served a cockroach before that was cooked in the food. I have also been served rice with weevils. In fact, it prepared me for spending time in India, as I did not get an upset stomach eating the local fruit, vegetables and vendor foods.

Here Taiwan have a link, its on me.
Safe Food Handling