Food Safety Community

This morning I went to the Ministry of Public Health and met two of their staff and then we drove to Samut Songkhram Province. This is the smallest province in Thailand and it sits right where the river meets the sea. It is an interesting area. The food production includes seafood, fruit and sea salt. This area has been designated as a Food Safety Community by the Ministry of Public Health. This project involves producers, distributors, consumers and government organizations. There are projects to educate each sector and make this area a model in Food Safety. One of the highlights of this trip was Amphawa Floating Market. I had heard about the floating markets but this is the first one I have seen. The vendors sell food from small boats in some cases cooking it on board. We were there about 2 p.m. and the market doesn’t really open until 4 p.m. but there were a few vendors. The first picture below is of some of the ladies who were open for business. In the morning we visited a local fruit farming area and went to a facility that has many purposes. It is a center where local farmers are educated about production and food safety and it is also an agro-tourism facility with a home stay facility being added right now. The farmers in this area grow organic fruit mostly Pomelo and Coconut. The second picture is of some pomelo and the third is of the shop where I bought some coconut sugar. Coconut sugar reminds me a little of the maple sugar candy they make in Virginia where I grew up. The farmers here make their own compost and if I understood correctly they use molasses in it. They also use smoking vinegar as a natural insecticide.