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Babergh District Council has issued a warning to local food-handling businesses to be more careful with how their staff handle ice for use in drinks. A recent national survey, which including visits to premises in the Babergh area, revealed that almost half of the ice cubes inspected failed to reach minimum standards for human consumption.
"With the warmer weather just around the corner, more and more customers will be ordering drinks with ice. We want to ensure that local food-handling businesses check their procedures now so as to avoid an increased risk of their customers falling ill later" explained Emma Richbell, Babergh’s Technical Officer (Commercial).
The results of the survey are contained in the third issue of FoodWise, Babergh’s food safety and hygiene newsletter, which is being distributed to all relevant businesses. The survey showed that of the 18 samples taken from restaurants and takeaways in the Babergh district, 66% were unsatisfactory because of contamination by coliform bacteria. This type of bacteria is normally associated with human intestines. "Basically, they contaminated the ice because staff didn’t wash their hands after using the toilet!" explained Mrs Richbell.
Babergh has issued a five-point plan for food businesses to avoid such contamination, including using a clean scoop and not hands to remove ice, ensuring that ice machines are kept clean and making sure that any unused ice is thrown away and not re-frozen. It also asserts that staff should always wash their hands thoroughly before handling ice.
"Much of the advice is commonsense, but the survey would suggest that some businesses need to remind their staff of such basic hygiene" concluded Mrs Richbell.
More information on food safety, including a link to the FoodWise newsletter.
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