"No ice, please!" You might want to start using this line during your next visit to a fast food chain.
Investigative research conducted by The Daily Mail revealed disgusting results: fast food ice is dirtier than toilet water.
Can you imagine yourself sticking a straw down the toilet lavatory and taking a big sip? Maybe not. But the ice floating and melting in your soda may contain higher levels of dirt and bacteria than water in the toilet.
After testing 10 of Britain's most popular dining places, six were found to have shocking levels of bacteria in their ice, including McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Starbucks, Nandos, and Café Rouge. Though none were found fatal, a government-accredited lab said the restaurants were definitely a "hygiene risk."
To conduct the test, ice samples were collected from selected dining places and kept in sterile bags; and water samples from their lavatory bowls were also collected. Both were then tested and results were compared.
The health practitioners who led the tests were startled to find such high levels of microbes, abnormal of drinking water—the bacterial level was more than double. So while you enjoy that cold glass of soda, you may also be ingesting some unwanted, unseen guests swimming in your drink.
Health experts explain that these results were likely due to the fact that toilets are cleaned more frequently than ice machines, thinking that cold storage can't possibly breed dirt and bacteria, an assumption that is apparently wrong. Failing to thoroughly clean ice machines, ice scoops, and even the hands that handle them may prove to be very risky to human hygiene.
After the investigative test was made, the fast food chains studied issued statements saying they were either addressing the situation or retraining staff on proper hygienic procedures.