Ice like water from toilets!
Recent years have brought a lot of reports about ice produced by ice cube machines in bars and restaurants and home ice makers. The results of the samples are chilling. The samples have more bacteria than the water found in toilets. Daily Mail was one of the news websites publishing this hideous information. In 2013, it conducted an independent analysis of ice samples obtained from the most popular fast food restaurants. It turned out that both the pub and restaurant samples and the home samples contained a sizeable number of harmful microorganisms. The bacteria found include those from the Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter genera and Staphylococcus group.
Experts agree on one thing: the presence of bacteria in ice is due to human negligence during ice production, lack of knowledge, infrequent and inadequate cleaning of equipment, the use of inadequately prepared water in domestic conditions, and failure to follow basic hygiene rules.
In most of the articles we reviewed, including the Daily Mail article cited above, the experts agreed on one thing: the presence of bacteria in ice is primarily due to improperly cleaned ice-making machines.
The dirty truth about ice cubes
Ask yourself the question, how clean is the ice in your glass? If you are not careful, your drink has a lot of dangerous bacteria, no matter where the ice was made, whether in a pub, restaurant, ice factory, or your own home. You may think that micro-organisms do not survive in the icy conditions of freezers, but the truth is quite different and this is backed up by years of research by scientists around the world freezing bacteria and studying their survival rates.
Can you get sick from contaminated ice?
There are few studies that provide information on standards for the production of ice cubes. One of them are reports released by ice machine manufacturer Ice-O-Matic. They showed that almost 40% of operators acknowledge that they did not realise how often the ice machine, especially the water filters, needed cleaning. This showed that this area is often a neglected place. In addition, despite being professionally involved in the production of ice cubes, operators were unaware that bacteria were able to survive in ice.
Food and Nutrition Safety Act
The Food and Nutrition Safety Act has been in force in Poland since 28 October 2006. The food law is a set of legal acts establishing rules for the production and circulation of raw materials, food, and objects coming into contact with raw materials and food to the extent necessary to protect health and meet consumer expectations.
Stowarzyszenie Producentów i Operatorów Certyfikowanego Lodu Spożywczego, (Association of producers and operators of certified food ice) KRS [National Court Register] No. 0000784552, REGON [National Official Business Register] No. 383424111, NIP [VAT] No. 7010927104 00-630 WARSZAWA, ul. POLNA 24/7
English 
Polish