"If You Ate Three Bowls, It Could Be Fatal": Thai Noodle Restaurant Used 'Yellow Powder' Found in Trash

Toxic Substance: "Nitrite" ... Three Bowls Could Be Fatal

Yellow Powder Found in Trash Tasted Salty, Mistaken for Salt

A restaurant in Thailand mistakenly used an unidentified powder, believing it to be salt, in their food, resulting in a group hospitalization incident.

At a restaurant in Thailand, a group of customers was hospitalized after eating noodles containing an unidentified powder. Photo by The Tiger Capture

According to Thai media outlet The Tiger on June 12 (local time), several people—including relatives of the restaurant owner and customers—who dined at a restaurant in the Nong Nakham area of Udon Thani Province on June 8 experienced symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, diarrhea, vomiting, and difficulty breathing, and were transported to the hospital as a group.

One of the individuals exhibited an unusual symptom of dark green urine, and four people were reported to be in critical condition initially. All hospitalized patients have since received treatment and are now in stable condition.

Authorities determined that the cause was the unidentified powder the restaurant owner had added to the noodles. The restaurant owner's son, while intoxicated, found a yellow powder in a pile of trash and gave it to his mother. The owner, noticing the powder tasted salty, used it directly in cooking.

After collecting patient vomit samples, the restaurant's meat broth, and the problematic yellow powder for detailed analysis by the Department of Medical Sciences, authorities confirmed that the powder was 99.2% pure nitrite.

Nitrite is a chemical mainly used as a preservative or color fixative in processed meats. Excessive intake reduces the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity, which can cause blue discoloration of the skin, shortness of breath, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, and, in severe cases, death. By law, only a minuscule amount of nitrite may be used under strict standards, and authorities emphasized that nitrite cannot be substituted for edible salt.

Notably, the concentration of nitrite detected in the noodle broth reached 2,933 mg per liter. Considering that the recommended daily intake for adults, as set by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), is 4 mg, even a single spoonful of the broth would exceed the daily limit by hundreds of times. The Department of Medical Sciences explained that eating three bowls of these noodles at once could have been fatal.

Health authorities urged companies handling chemicals to strictly manage waste disposal and advised residents and food service workers never to use substances of unknown origin in food or beverages.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.