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Food Health and Safety

About us at Sala Mexicali


Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of our food, drink and premises. Here is what we do to ensure maximum health and safety of our guests as well as our staff.

Hot Plastics

Cooking or microwaving in plastics is forbidden. Plastic endocrine disruptors leech into the foods when heating and in contact with plastics. While Sous Vide style cooking of many restaurants claim to use safe BPA-free plastics to cook in, we do not feel there is any safe levels concerning any type of hot plastic being in contact with hot food and hot liquids.

Hot Aluminum

Cooking at high temperatures or for long durations using aluminum is very dangerous and we strictly avoid it. We only use aluminum foil for take-away packaging of some foods, after the dish has cooled a bit, so a bit warm, but not hot. Same goes for our cooking, we use stainless steel and cast iron for all very hot dishes, ceramic pans for medium hot dishes.

Teflon

Teflon coated cooking materials are banned from our kitchens. What a terrible idea to coat pots and pans with Teflon. We ban it.

Certification for Food Safety and Hygiene

All of our chefs and cooks have passed a mandatory training in Phuket Town on food safety and hygiene. They have all been through an all day training course and passed the written exam at the end. Only well established restaurants in Phuket (approximately 10%) were called in for this mandatory training. Our staff passed on the first round of the exam.

Hydrogen Peroxide Spot Checks

Once a month or so, I will bring a large bottle of hydrogen peroxide into the kitchen, bar area, seating area and bathrooms. fill up a cap full of H2O2 and throw it on a surface, door knobs, light switches, chopping boards, fridge handles, sink handles, plugs and outlets, etc. When H2O2 comes in contact with bacteria, it will turn into a very noticeable white frothy foam... this is due to bad germs dying off through oxidation. When this happens, we spray down the area with 100% rubbing alcohol solution, clean it down good, then clean with soap and water. Each staff is assigned work area sections to keep clean, when they pass the spot check, and I see no white foam, they get rewarded.

Staff Health

Our cooks have health checks each year. If any of our staff is not feeling well, even the slightest bit, we encourage them to stay home on paid leave until they are better. We provide full paid time off for anyone not feeling well and pay their doctor visits and medicine. We are adamant about staff not coming in sick and getting other staff or guests sick, and create an environment where they never feel obligated to come into work if not feeling well.

Our Water

The water we serve is filtered and purified for drinking. We regularly clear the glass bottles and treat both the bottles and water with UV lighting. The water is very high in PH, having a factor of around 8.5 to 9, making it extremly alkaline. All staff drink this water and we use it for soups and to wash fruits and vegatables.


(Very clean with high PH alkalinity and no trace plastic micro-particle pollutants.)


Fruits and Vegetables Bath

We buy organic non-GMO fresh local produce as much as we possibly can source. All fruits and vegetables are given a several minute water bath soaking in vinegar, baking soda and clean water, then rinsed and chilled. Vinegar and Baking soda baths have proven to be very effective of removing any potential pesticide residue.

Safe Soap and Rinsing

Yes, certain dishwashing soaps are toxic, and not properly rinsing glasses and dishes is suspected to cause cancer. Our staff is well aware of this and when we clean utensils, glasses and dishes, you can assure we clean it properly and do not leave behind any soap residue, also we use a safe dishwashing soap. The key ingredients to be aware of and which are deemed harmful are ammonium sulfate, sodium laurel sulphate (SLS), Triclosan (also found in some toothpastes), sulphuric acid, fragrances and formaldehyde.
[ More Info on Dish Soap and Cancer ]

No GMO's or Chemicals

We do not use Monsanto products... with the exception of selling coca-cola and providing ketchup on the table. We are adamantly against GMO's. We are adamantly against chemical additives, coloring and flavor enhancers. We are against excitotoxins, MSG and preservatives.

Pest Control

Rats and mosquitoes are a huge problem everywhere, Our kitchen surface areas are covered up at night, all utensils, dishes and food items sealed and stored. But we clean all surfaces each new day as though it wasn't covered. We have the entire perimeter of the kitchen baited at all times, food mixed with plaster of Paris, and food mixed with baking soda. No poisons. We also have a detection mechanism around the perimeter to immediately know if a mouse or rat was able to get into the kitchen at night, and if that perimeter has been breached, everything gets bleached down, and we check the baited food to make sure they ate it and will never come back. We use a variety of poison baits and traps outside of the kitchen and dining area to try and ever prevent them from getting into the kitchen in the first place, They hang out along the street in the drain system where garbage is set out, for that reason we mostly do not have any food in the trash set out there, we take care of about 20 stray dogs with leftovers. As for mosquitoes the Rawai branch does fogging once a month, 5 meters outside of the kitchen and dining area. We set up mosquito coils on the outskirts of the dining area, and have bottles of non-toxic all natural lemon-grass repellant available at each table.