experiment [2] of it's own. Local 6 News collected ice samples from five different area fast food restaurants. At a McDonald's restaurant, a hidden camera caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a filthy nozzle on the ice dispenser, the report said. There appeared to be nothing unusual at a Burger King on state Road 436 in Apopka, or at a Taco Bell on Highway 17-92. At an Arby's restaurant in Orlando and a Wendy's in Winter Park, Fla., there were no automatic ice dispensers, just employees with a scoop.
Local 6 News turned over samples of ice from the restaurants to Flowers Chemical Laboratories for testing. "We tested for total coliform," Jeff Flowers said. "Total coliform is associated with man. We test for this organism because we know if we found it, we found the presence of man." Flowers said it is a common misconception that bacteria can't grow on ice because it's so cold.
"Bacteria can lay on the ice and infect you later and that's why there are standards to control the level of bacteria that's acceptable," Flowers said. However, lab results showed four out of five samples taken from the restaurants turned out to be clean ice. However, one showed high levels of bacteria—an ice sample taken at the Arby's located on Lee Road in Orlando. "We found seven colonies instead of the [only] one that we wanted to," Flowers said. "So we found seven times as much as should be there."
The manager at the Arby's restaurant would not talk to Local 6 News about the result. The Arby's restaurant does not have an automatic ice dispenser, and Flowers said that could have made all of the difference. "When you use the scoop, there's a chance that somebody's sick and they use that scoop, now that's going to be present," Flowers said.
This Poop Reporter has seen fast food workers come out to the dining room beverage machine carrying a handled bucket full of ice. They will be carrying a stepstool with the other hand. They will then proceed to step up on top of the stool, flip open the ice dispenser, and dump the bucket of ice into the top of the machine. There are WAY too many variables here, for me. The employee's hands, the machine that made the ice somewhere back in the bowels of the store; these are both potential hazards, to say nothing of the cleanliness of the bucket itself. Who knows if it was just holding mop water?
What do Poop Reporters think? Does anyone check, before ordering a drink, whether the ice is dispensed by hand or from a machine? Has anyone here ever HAD an E.coli infection? Is it worth the risk? What other factors could there be for ice harboring dangerous bacteria?
Think about this: ALL the stories we have about getting sick after eating fast FOOD.....maybe it's not the food, after all. Maybe it's the fast food ICE!
