Ice anyone? Serabi: How safe is the tap water in your country? KFC ice cubes 12 times dirtier than toilet water China's official broadcast media reported on bacteria-laden ice in fast food outlets. From QUARTZ.com 'The Chinese government’s official broadcast media says that ice cubes served in KFC were 12 times dirtier than toilet water—and 19 times the national bacteria level standard. The report, which was based on samples the China Central Television (CCTV) reporter took in eastern Beijing, found that ice cubes at Chinese fast food chain Kung Fu also out-germed toilet water. While McDonald’s ice cubes also exceeded the national bacteria level standard, though they were still cleaner than toilet water. A food safety expert interviewed in the initial segment—CCTV has since aired many more—said the bacteria could cause dysentery and diarrhea (link in Chinese). After the initial CCTV report aired on Sunday, discussion of the issue went, er, viral on Sina Weibo. Since then, KFC, McDonald’s and Kung Fu have all apologized and vowed to clean their ice machines. Here’s a look at some of the footage from the CCTV report . Bacteria-infested fast food restaurant ice machines are common outside China, too. Last year, a report on a slew of fast food outlets in the UK proved similarly shocking to the public, and prompted a government-accredited laboratory to name them a “hygiene risk.” None of those samples contained bacteria that were actually harmful to human health.' News24 (Edited by Serabi) ghostgeek: What have ice cubes got to do with tap water? It would seem that fast food outlets are very dirty places. Not good at making clean ice. That doesn't mean the tap water is necessarily dirty. davidk14: . Ice machines in restaurants should be professionally cleaned no less than once a month and the water filtration system to the machine changed at least once ever three months. . Serabi: I have never known a restaurant to make ice from bottled water. They use tap water. I'm not querying the sanitation around the machines, rather the frozen water i.e. ICE.
davidk14: . Restaurants make ice from local tap water. However, the water absolutely must go through some sort of filtering process just before going into the ice making machine. Local tap water is not pure enough to make 'good' ice. First hand knowledge. Once the water is filtered, usually a number of times, the water enters the ice machine and then ice is made. Now....ice becomes contaminated during the freezing process from the internal environment of the ice machine and also where the ice machine is located in a kitchen. If you want me to go on describing how ice is contaminated, let me know and I will continue, otherwise, just be careful where you eat and drink. If you enter and establishment and it just doesn't 'smell good'....turn around right then and there. You might have just dodged ' a bullet '. . Serabi: The above article was about ice in China. I'm sure they follow stringent rules! How many people have gone to Malasya, Thailand, etc. heeded the warning 'Don't drink the water', and still got really sick. Very often the ice that they had in their beer, water, etc gets forgotten. Bumpa: I had ice in the Philippines which turned out to be made from tap water. 10 days in hospital with dysentary! Tap water here in NZ must be drinkable by law. I have my own bore which gives me almost 100% pure water Serabi: To make beautiful, safe, clear ice, boil the water and freeze. With the gasses boiled out, the ice is crystal clear. Bumpa: Ghost, a case if dysentary is a small price to pay for the excitement of traveling in exotic countries. It's fondly known as Dheli belly ghostgeek: Bumpa, when I was a child I was very ill and was in hospital for many months. While there I caught dysentary and was put in isolation. It was similar to being put in a prison cell with a glass wall. It is not something I wish to repeat. ghostgeek: To be truthful Bumpa it's not so much being afraid to leave home as not having the urge to. | Off Topic Chat Room Similar Conversations |