Damnoen Saduak food shop affirms good hygiene after video
Insists it cleans cooking utensils and dishes properly, not just washing them in canal
The owner of a popular food shop at the famous Damnoen Saduak floating market in Ratchaburi insists the shop cleans its cooking utensils and dishes properly, not just washing them in a canal as seen on a Facebook video clip.
On Sunday, Chaiya Limpapanon, owner of Jeh Now food shop at the market, said the foreign tourist who took the video and raised a question about hygiene at the shop misunderstood the situation and the shop had explained it to her.
The clip showed a female employee of the shop cleaning cooking utensils in the canal. On Friday, a Facebook page, “I Sow Khayi Laek”, shared the clip, saying a foreign tourist recorded it and asked whether Thais washed their dishes this way.
The clip showed a woman cleaning a pan in the canal, whose water was quite murky. The clip was liked more than 8,000 times, was shared more than 300 times, and received more than 900 comments.
Chaiya claimed that his staff simply cleaned the large cooking utensils such as pans and pots in the canal preliminary before taking them back to the sink in the shop to wash them properly.
He said that on that day there were many orders and the sink was piled up with dishes, so the staff took large utensils to the canal for initial cleaning before washing them thoroughly in the shop.
Chaiya also claimed the shop did not dump food waste into the canal as feared by social networkers.
He said the market’s management and officials from government agencies prohibited dish-washing in the canal and he has instructed his staff not to clean large utensils in the canal again no matter how busy the shop gets.
Chaiya said that after the clip was widely shared on social networks, the public health office of Damnoen Saduak district had dispatched officials to check hygiene practices at the shop and they were informed that it was a case of misunderstanding.
The female employee, identified as Ying, said she had talked to the woman who shot the video and explained the situation to her. Ying said the tourist apologised and deleted the original clip after the explanation.
Meanwhile, Dr Pajaree Areerob, Ratchaburi’s chief public health officer, said the office had investigated the incident and confirmed the shop’s version of the event.
She said the shop had been warned not to do it again.
