Next time you're in Chicago, try the toilet water

by Bob Sassone (Subscribe to Bob Sassone's posts)
Posted Dec 4th 2007 3:33PM
Filed under: Restaurants, Science, Business, Newspapers, Health & Medical

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ice cubes Stories like this make me happy I don't like ice in my cold drinks.

The Chicago Sun-Times tested 49 different restaurants and fast food places in the area and found out that not only did 1 in 5 have ice cubes that had high levels of bacteria, 21 of the 49 had toilet water in the Sun-Times restroom that had less bacteria than the ice cubes. The paper actually names the restaurants.

Now, this either means the restaurants aren't handling their ice cubes correctly (or there's something in the water), or the urinary and digestive tracts of Sun-Times employees are unusually clean.

I remember I worked in a restaurant that had a large sink behind the bar that we just filled with ice, and it was left open. I can imagine what could have fallen in there or how clean the sink was when the ice was put in.

Tags: bacteria, chicago restaurants, chicago sun-times, toilet water, water

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12-04-2007 @ 4:18PM

corey_harmon said...

I first heard about this when a girl did a science fair project and tested the bacteria levels in ice cubes and toilets and found the same results. I think the consensus was that restaurants aren't cleaning the ice machines on a regular basis so bacteria builds up. Ick.

A link to the science fair project story:
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=25442

CNN also did their own investigation after news of the project came out:
http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/cnn_floods_the_zone_with_toile.php

12-04-2007 @ 8:37PM

sara said...

The problem with these studies is that they don't distinguish between types of bacteria. In terms of sheer numbers there may be more bacteria in the ice machine, what really matters is how harmful the bacteria is.

12-05-2007 @ 10:29AM

kevjohn said...

I've seen some extremely questionalbe ice-handling practices in restaurants in every state I've ever set foot in. From people filling soda dispensers with ice buckets they just picked up off the floor, to the guy in Texas who just bare-handed handfuls of ice into cups for customers' drinks, I've seen it all.

On a side note, that bare hand ice was some of the tastiest I've ever had.

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