Food: Dos and Donts

When food is cooked and then left out, bacteria can multiply quickly. Bacteria can grow undetected because they don’t produce bad odors or change the colors or textures of the food.

Bacteria will grow in your food quickly if and when left out. It grows best at warmer temperatures. Nothing to get freaked out about. I wouldn't leave a bowl of homemade chicken curry out in the open all day and then eat it later for dinner. Cover and refrigerate, or eat it all!

Practice the same sanitary practices you should at home and you'll be fine. I enjoy eating stuff that is new/strange/unknown to me. If you like that, then you should go right ahead. I do also use common sense, usually.

I have never gotten any food sicknesses in Africa except for fruit - and I have eaten some truly weird stuff, dining in holes-in-the-wales, munching on roadside foods and meats, drinking funky botanical concoctions, and chewing on odd sticks and leaves and nuts.................

Food in Ghana are not fancy, fred fish is very good though. Don't eat with your hand like they do... Unless you enjoy eating fufu : )

Like to reply, hope I don't confuse things. My wife and I lived in Accra for two years, long ago. The only advice I remember that we received was (1) Boil your drinking water for 20 minutes and (2) you can eat any fruit that you can peel.

I remember getting sick only after drinking palm wine in the bush, probably from a shared bowl (half a coconut shell, naturally).

The only thing that would be in the air would be flies, if any. Same as in India or Mexico, or U.S.A. If a fly lands on your food, all bets are off.

Another reason to be careful about food is that people don't wash their hands as often as they should.

I looked up salmonella and botulism in wikipedia. Seems like problems only happen when correct procedures are not followed. Food is undercooked or hands are not washed.

If food is to be cooked, make it very hot, not just warm. Cook in boiling water or in palm oil that is at least boiling water temperature. That should kill anything. To be safe you should follow advice in a previous post, but in my humble opinion if you make the food really hot and then don't touch it, and cover it very well, nothing should grow in it.

In summary, wash hands and utensils, boil water, make cooked food very hot before eating or storing, and don't share when eating.

These kinds of questions get contradictory answers because everyone's experience is different, so it doesn't necessarily generalize to other people. The basic mindset that you need is to remember that bacteria multiply far more quickly at ambient temperatures in the tropics than in temperate zones (anyone doubting this is welcome to take a casual approach to other bacterial issues, like minor scratches and wounds, which might be benign in the USA or Europe, but can get serious very quickly in the tropics). To complicate matters, water sources, surfaces and the busy little feet of common flies (which in some places run rampant) are often far more polluted than at home; sewage disposal is often, umm, unsophisticated, and you know where flies like to walk around. Finally, you may not have developed resistance to the local microbes; to some degree, you probably already have at home.

My experience with many Africans is that they wash more frequently than lots of tourists. What's more, most of Africa is nowhere near as bad for G.I. tract ills as is, say, south Asia. You can often get away with eating street food or drinking form the local water supply in ways which would cripple you in Nepal or India. But that doesn't make it a good idea, especially when you've got a choice.

In all of the above, we're ignoring the related issue of worms. I've known people to get worms in Africa, although I never have myself, and it doesn't look like a pleasant experience. Fortunately, the same precautions which apply to bacterial infections also prevent the sorts of worms found in foods.

And don't forget that some bacteria produce toxins which survive cooking; that means that food which has been left out for too long before cooking might poison you even though the bacteria themselves have been killed by the heat of cooking. Just in case you need something more to consider at your leisure.

This message brought to you by your local nagging worrywart.

Mark

(who generally eats whatever he wishes (within reason) in Africa, but carries a fairly complete medical kit and doesn't hesitate to use it)

In Ghana i had FISH. FISH. FISH, then dog, bat, rat, cow, goat, omlet... But never had fufu.

Once I was sick because I had only coconut in Accra due to heat, but then I moved on to Volta region where it was cool, my stomac got ill

My point is no worries, eat what ever is well cooked.

Please any further dissertations on simple things of life?

our question is, what is in the air, and why do we have to eat our meals warm/hot?

What's in the air is the same that's in the air everywhere. It's not the air so much, it's the simple fact that unrefrigerated food in the tropics spoils very quickly. If you eat food right after it's been cooked, you'll have less chance of getting food poisoning.

...if i made my own meal, and i left it on the counter for a bit and it got cold, will bacteria go in?

Yes, and that will happen no mater where you are in the world. Any food left uncovered is a breeding ground for mold, bacteria, and who knows what else. That's why you cover it and put it in the refrigerator, if you have one.

I had never a problem, only once after eating a whole pineapple, I got a very bad stomach infection. But the point was, that there was too much acid in the pineapple, which caused some trouble, the infection cam ontop of this, in my opnion.

So, just take care, hot food and most of the restaurants are OK. I even had lunch on the street without any problem.

Enjoy Ghana!