Travel health
Food and water safety while travelling: what helps
Simple, evidence-backed precautions for food, drinks, hand hygiene, and what to do when careful planning is not enough.
Food and water precautions can lower the risk of travel-related stomach illness. They cannot make the risk disappear: food preparation, sanitation, and refrigeration are often outside a traveller’s control. Think of this as a way to make better choices when you have them, not a test you can pass perfectly.
Start with your hands
Wash your hands with soap and water before eating and after using the toilet. If soap and water are not available, the CDC recommends an alcohol-based hand sanitiser containing at least 60% alcohol. Use it as a stopgap, then wash properly when you can; sanitiser is not as effective against every pathogen and does not work well on visibly dirty hands.
Keeping a small bottle in an easy-to-reach pocket is more useful than keeping one at the bottom of a suitcase.
Make the lower-risk choice where water is uncertain
Where tap water may not be safe, choose drinks in factory-sealed containers or water that has been properly treated. Treat ice with the same caution, since it may have been made with unsafe water.
For food, the CDC recommends favouring thoroughly cooked food served hot. Raw or undercooked meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, unpasteurised dairy, and uncooked produce can carry more risk in places with inadequate or unknown hygiene and sanitation. Fruit you can rinse with safe water and peel yourself is a more cautious option than pre-cut fruit or salad.
These are useful defaults, not a judgement about local food. Plenty of good meals are served by small businesses and street vendors; the point is to make an informed decision when your body needs a little more predictability.
Pack for the possibility, not the expectation
Bring your regular medicines, a small hygiene kit, and enough supplies to handle a short delay. If you have a condition that changes how you manage diarrhoea, are pregnant, are travelling with children, or take regular medication, ask a clinician or pharmacist what belongs in your personal travel kit.
If diarrhoea develops, safe fluids are the priority. Oral rehydration solution can help replace fluid and electrolytes when losses are significant; follow the packet instructions and use safe water to prepare it.
Know when to get help
Seek medical advice promptly for bloody diarrhoea, a high fever, severe pain, repeated vomiting that prevents you from keeping fluids down, signs of dehydration, or symptoms that are not improving. People who are pregnant, immunocompromised, older, very young, or living with a chronic condition should get individual advice sooner.
This is general information, not a diagnosis or treatment plan. The official sources listed alongside this guide are the place to check when planning a trip or deciding what to do next.