Almost one-third of U.K. establishments could be serving contaminated ice with their drinks, according to a study by the country’s Health Protection Agency.
Experts from the HPA conducted testing on 88 pubs, restaurants and coffee shops and found that 30 percent of ice, ice machines and utensils showed signs of poor hygiene, reports the Daily Mail.
"Thirty per cent – 42 – of the ice samples were found to have unsatisfactory levels of coliform bacteria," said the HPA in a statement.
"Of these, three samples were also found to have unsatisfactory levels of Enterococci and one sample had an unsatisfactory level of E.coli. Both Enterococci and E.coli can be found in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals and may be an indication of fecal contamination."
According to Dr John Piggott, manager of the HPA laboratory: "As ice is essentially water, some may have the misconception that strict cleaning procedures do not need to be applied to ice-making equipment, but our study shows this is not the case."