Fast Food Ice Dirtier Than Toilet Water!
Out of the mouths of babes comes this news. Budding scientist,
12-year-old Jasmine Roberts from Benito Middle School in Tampa,
Fla., has created a science fair project that has lots of grown-ups
sitting up and taking notice. Her conclusion: Ice at fast food
restaurants is laced with bacteria. Lots of it.
Tampa Bay Online reports that Roberts examined the amount of
bacteria in the ice served at fast food restaurants and the amount
of bacteria in the toilet bowl water in those same restaurants. The
toilet bowl water was cleaner 70 percent of the time.
Even Roberts found the results to be startling. She told Tampa Bay
Online reporter Michele Sager, "I thought there might be a little
bacteria in the ice, but I never expected it to be this much. And I
never thought the toilet water would be cleaner."
The study: Roberts collected ice samples from five fast food
restaurants near the University of South Florida, including
self-service dispensers inside the restaurants and in drinks served
through the drive-through windows. Then she collected samples of
water from the toilets in those same restaurants. All the samples
were placed in sterile containers. She tested them in a lab at the
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, where she volunteers with a
University of South Florida professor.
The results: In four of the five restaurants, the ice that came
from the self-service machines had more bacteria than the toilet
water, reports Tampa Bay Online. Three of the five cups of ice from
the drive-through windows had more bacteria than the toilet water.
The bacteria in the ice included fecal coliform or E. coli, which
can only come from the feces of warm-blooded animals.
How did the bacteria get into the ice? Roberts suspects either the
machine was not properly cleaned or an employee with soiled hands
touched the ice.
Geoff Luebkemann, the Florida state official whose agency is
responsible for regulating hotels and restaurants, told Tampa Bay
Online, "Ice machines are part of the health inspections. There are
a lot of factors that have to be considered, like how accurately
did she gather and test her specimens. Plus, comparing the ice to
toilet water can be misleading because there are acceptable levels
of bacteria for water."
Not so says Galina Tuninskaya, vice president of Applied Consumer
Services, a private lab that tests drinking water. "No levels of
fecal coliform or E. coli are acceptable," she told Tampa Bay
Online. "If you find that, you've got a problem."
In case you wondered, Roberts won the science fair.
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/package.jsp?floc=ns-tos-toda-h-04&name=fte/dirtyice/dirtyice
You know... I have worked at Fast Food Restuarants in
Singapore at 15 yrs old for two years... And I can tell you that
the Ice maker in those places are nearly never been serviced (if
not spoiled for repairs).. not that I know.. because they operate
for 365 days a year and ICE is a a MUST. I wonder how it would
flair here... because like it or not ... the Crew would handle the
scopes with bare hands and the scopes do come into contact with the
ICE
