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Jul 24, 2026
Sorry Kids, the Only Souvenir Daddy Got Was a Prescription for Azithromycin
Sorry Kids, the Only Souvenir Daddy Got Was a Prescription for Azithromycin
00:00
10:43
Transcript
0:00
Have you ever eaten something that you regretted? Oh, yes. Many times. Can you remember the worst one? Uh, yeah, actually, I remember. I was in [censored] Thailand. Uh, it's pronounced Phuket. Oh, sorry.
0:13
Anyway, it was lunchtime, and we were waiting at the airport for our flight to Hong Kong, and I wanted some Macca's. Macca's is how they say McDonald's in Australian. Yeah, but don't they sound, like, funny?
0:25
I like sounding like a funny little person. Yes, they're very funny. Before I continue, a word of warning to our listeners. This podcast is not for the faint of heart. If you are easily grossed out, stop listening now.
0:38
We'll tell you why, and I will share my Phuket burger story in just a minute. [upbeat music] Welcome to The Elliott Confidential Podcast.
0:48
In each episode, we take a case, we tell you what went wrong, we tell you how to avoid it, and if possible, we fix it.
0:56
And we bring the receipts, the emails, the text conversations, and today, a particularly unpleasant personal anecdote about food safety. Yep, today we're doing food safety.
1:09
And don't worry, I will not go into what happens after I arrive at the throne. I call today's story, Sorry, Kids, the Only Souvenir Daddy Got Was a Prescription for Azithromycin. [laughs] Okay. So here's the setup.
1:24
The travel industry runs on something called the cold chain. That's the temperature-controlled supply line that's supposed to keep your food safe from the farm all the way to the fork.
1:34
And when it works, you never think about it. But this summer, you've got record heat stacked on an industry that's already melting down, delayed flights, understaffed hotels, power outages in some places.
1:46
It's crazy, crazy, crazy out there. So while everyone's panicking about lost bags and cancellations, the actual danger is warming up in the galley cart.
1:57
Robert Glatter, an ER physician, said even high-end restaurants and resorts sometimes don't have proper refrigeration or food safety training. And here's something interesting.
2:08
When cold food sits out, the clock speeds up big time. Dr. G said, quote, "The time for pathogens to reach infectious levels may be up to 50% less compared to continuous refrigeration." Dr. G.
2:21
I wonder if his kids call him that. Yeah, and that's a risk you don't wanna take when you're 3,000 miles from your own doctor. I talked to Trisha Patricia. Who sounds like she's from an Amelia Bedelia book, by the way.
2:35
Just thought I'd chime in and say that. I have nothing else to add. Uh, thanks, Iden.
2:39
Anyway, Patricia is a gastroenterologist at Harvard Medical School, and I wanted her to help me understand what a safe temperature was. And the bottom line is, if the food is not refrigerated, it's probably not safe.
2:53
Trisha said, quote, "Think about this. Boiling water is 212 degrees, but a comfortable bath temperature is around 100. If you can take a bath in it, bacteria can rapidly multiply in it." Now, this is despicable. Hmm.
3:08
Why are we, as Americans, supplying these bacteria with such comfortable working conditions? That is not the American way. These bacteria should be using water bottles to relieve themselves, by golly, I'll tell you.
3:20
That's right. I agree. And the worst part is you can't know these bacteria are present in the first place. A microbiologist that I spoke with named Mario Hupfeld told me it's undetectable.
3:33
He says, quote, "You won't smell or taste it, but the risk is right there." Hey, hey, hey. Now, wait a second. Does this mean the 30-second rule doesn't work? Iden, I think you mean the five-second rule. Oh, okay.
3:48
So it works if it's five seconds then. Iden, you were dropped on your head as a child. What? [upbeat music] [laughs] Okay, let's talk about the buffet. We're just gonna move, we're just gonna keep going after that? Okay.
4:01
A private chef in London, Dean Harper, told us there's a specific behavior that can make buffeting extra dangerous at this time of the year. It's grazing.
4:10
He says, quote, "People graze for hours at a buffet, effectively turning a short exposure into a long one as food sits in the danger zone."
4:19
Now, I always take multiple trips to the buffet with my tray so I can get the full experience and my money's worth. You're using the most bacteria-ridden food receptacle known to man over the course of hours.
4:32
And Harper told me that people judge the food by how it looks, not how cold it is. The shallow ice, the barely warm chafing dishes, the heat lamps that don't actually hold the food where it needs to be.
4:45
We ignore them all. As long as it looks tasty, that's all that matters. But the real crime happens in the back. It's called topping up, which is when staff purposefully disregard the first in, first out rule.
4:59
A head chef in London, Saiful Rahman, said, quote, "Staff may top up fresh food onto older batches instead of swapping the whole pan, which keeps the core in the danger zone." Ew.
5:12
We're hearing a lot about the danger zone today. So he's saying that the fresh potato salad that's on top is sitting on a three-hour-old batch underneath.
5:23
And Harper says the fresh scoop gets seeded with bacteria from the old one. The buffet essentially becomes one big Petri dish. Okay. Then I'll just stick with the safe stuff. Plain rice, right? It's nice and boring.
5:39
Actually, Iden, rice is one of the worst offenders. Ugh. Rahman warned us about cooked rice, curries, stews, gravies. When they sit at room temperature, they are particularly hazardous.
5:51
And the pediatric infectious disease chief at Stony Brook, Sharon Nachman, flagged rice and mayonnaise specifically as high risk. No. But I love eating plain rice and mayonnaise together. Mm-hmm.
6:05
Well, hey, I don't need to eat those from a buffet. I'll just buy them from a store or order it on the plane. That'll work, right? Well, when the airline system melts down, the food safety system melts down with it.
6:19
I talked to a sales director named Alan Hu, who moves temperature-sensitive goods around Asia and Australia, and he had the data.
6:25
He said, quote, "A single hour at an airport or hub can put perishable foods into the danger zone." Everything seems to be in the danger zone, huh? Are we in danger? We might be.
6:38
Well, anyway, he, he continued and told us about a shipment of chilled seafood that got stuck in the heat at a coastal airport. The container was sealed the whole time.
6:47
Alan said, quote, "Although the shipping container remained sealed, the internal temperature loggers recorded temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Fahrenheit within two hours."
6:57
That's what's happening to the food you eat on any delayed flight. The cold chain has broken itself. Now, Iden, you have a first-hand experience to share with us.
7:06
Can you tell people what happened on your summer flight from Phuket to Hong Kong?
7:11
You see, I'm a gambling man, and I knew that there were some safety concerns with the, the food in Thailand, especially at this airport and in Phuket. But you see, I'm a gambling man, [laughs]
7:22
and I wanted a tasty burger. Once I received the burger, I ate the burger and felt just fine on our flight over to Hong Kong. In fact, I felt really good. It was a, quite a tasty burger.
7:33
Then we arrived and got to our hotel in Hong Kong, which is where I began feeling ill, like lava sitting at the, at the deepest recesses of my stomach, slowly rising, waiting to erupt from my maw.
7:51
I don't, I don't think I left that hotel room for more than three days, and let's just say over the course of those three days, the toilet was used frequently. Always occupied.
8:03
So my lesson from this ordeal: treat your food like you'd treat any other common tourist activity in Southeast Asia, and stay protected. Yep, sunscreen is essential to any Southeast Asia trip.
8:16
[upbeat music] So how do you keep your stomach out of the danger zone? Here's what experts told me. One, audit the buffet. If you're gonna eat there, take small portions from a pan that's just been swapped in.
8:28
Skip anything sitting low in the well, and skip anything without any real heat or solid ice under it. Two, watch the clock.
8:36
Don't eat anything that's been sitting out for more than two hours in warm weather, and if it's over 90 degrees, that window drops to one hour. Don't trust your hand to tell you if something's cold enough.
8:47
Three, sealed food is preferable. If you're stuck in a delay, stop hunting for a hot meal or a burger, and go for a sealed, refrigerated item. Fruit you peel yourself, like a banana or a mango, is good, too.
9:00
Four, medicate yourself. Taking Pepto-Bismol before and during travel can cut the risk of explosive diarrhea by 65%, and since explosive is not a medical term, I can say that. Yes, you can.
9:13
One more thing, check your insurance before you go. Travel medical coverage can pay for urgent care if you get sick, and if you're too sick to fly, trip interruption can cover the extra nights.
9:24
That's the difference between an unpleasant memory and a financial hit. Oh, and one more thing, the hotel mini fridge.
9:30
A dietician at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Meridian Zerner, told us a lot of hotel mini fridges simply aren't cold enough. They don't cool like the fridge in your kitchen, especially when they're packed full.
9:41
Don't store perishables on the door or the top shelf. That also applies to medications that have to be refrigerated. That can cause a big problem. Hotel refrigerators don't really refrigerate.
9:53
We want to believe the travel industry has our back, that the restaurant follows code, the airline checks the catering carts, or the hotel fridge works.
10:03
And most of the time it does, until the heat spikes and the systems start failing all at once. And when that happens, the only person making sure your food is safe is you.
10:14
Watch the clock, keep the buffet brief, and rice is the dish of a gambling man. If you've got a consumer problem you can't solve, we are at elliottadvocacy.org/help, or you can email me directly at
[email protected]
.
10:29
And if you were dropped on your head as a child and just want a guy to talk about it with, my email is
[email protected]
. [upbeat music]
Elliott Confidential
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