Is the ice you eat hygienic?

“The cherry has passed and the tea fragrance has diminished, and the bronze mirror is calling for ice.” Although it is the beginning of autumn, the “autumn tiger” has kept the temperature high in many areas, and iced drinks such as milk tea, fruit tea, and coffee are still hot. Recently, the China Consumers Association and the China Commercial Enterprise Management Association issued an initiative, calling on catering operators to respect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and to reasonably control the ice in drinks based on consumers’ right to know, right to choose and right to fair trade.

The ice content affects consumers’ drinking experience, and the quality of ice is even more of a major issue involving food safety. What is the quality of edible ice sold in beverage stores and other consumption scenarios? The reporter conducted a visit and investigation.

The reporter searched for “ice cubes”, “ice cups” and “edible ice” as keywords on the takeaway platform, and found that nearby supermarkets and convenience stores all sell “ice cups” that are convenient for users to make their own ice cubes and “edible ice bags” that can be used directly, with prices ranging from 1 yuan to 8 yuan, and the highest monthly sales reached more than 1,000 orders. Data from a food delivery platform shows that in the past month, the platform’s ice sales in Beijing have increased by 171% compared with the same period last year, among which edible ice cups are the most popular.

The reporter randomly visited several street convenience stores in Fengtai District, Beijing. A convenience store salesperson told the reporter that the most sold item in the store is edible ice cups, which are priced at 3 yuan. Consumer Mr. Fang said: “Coke with ice cubes tastes much better than ordinary cola. When I am at home, I make ice cubes and put them in cola. When I go out, I will buy ice cups at convenience stores and pour cola into them. It is very convenient. After drinking a cup of ice cola, the whole person feels cool.”

It is worth noting that data from a food delivery platform shows that from 8 pm to 4 am, the sales of edible ice cubes account for nearly half of the total sales of the day. The platform analysis said that it may be related to the high frequency of use scenarios. First-tier cities have the habit of drinking a cup at night, and the frequency of using ice cubes is higher.

The sanitation of ice cubes needs to be taken seriously

On August 27, the reporter came to an ice-making factory in Suzhou City, Anhui Province. Ling Ziping, the deputy general manager of the factory, told the reporter that they are a professional edible ice production enterprise with QS certification, but most of their current customers are large retail and catering companies. “We need to strictly implement the edible ice industry standards for production. The cost is several times higher than that of “retail” ice-making workshops, and the price will be relatively higher. Therefore, our customers are basically large retail and catering companies, and they have higher requirements for the purchase of edible ice.” According to him, the cost of ice cubes is mainly reflected in manpower, warehousing, and transportation. The water used to make edible ice must be filtered through 3 layers and disinfected in 2 layers, and the cost of cold chain transportation logistics is also twice as high as that of ordinary logistics.

The reporter visited and found that in addition to the edible ice produced by regular “ice factories”, there are also some “white bag ice” of unknown origin on the market, which are usually stored in plastic bags that are not tightly packed. There is only a contact number on the packaging, and there are no relevant certification marks such as QS, and the sanitation is worrying.

The reporter then visited several ready-made beverage stores that use edible ice more frequently and found that the edible ice in the store is basically made by ice makers. The reporter asked the store staff and learned that most of the ice used to make ice is bottled drinking water, but only one store has water purification equipment and disinfection measures.

Relevant staff of the Academic Working Committee of the Chinese Society of Refrigeration told reporters that according to relevant national regulations, the water for ice making must be professionally disinfected and infiltrated. Water treatment is the most important link to ensure water quality. It needs to go through coarse filtration, fine filtration, ultrafiltration, microporous filtration, ultraviolet sterilization and other processes, and ice cubes must also be sampled and inspected before they can be put on the market.

In addition to the water treatment link, the reporter also found a series of conditions that may cause hygiene problems in many ready-made beverage stores, such as ice buckets without bucket lids, store staff directly touching ice cubes with their hands, unhygienic ice scooping utensils, and ice makers that have been used for a long time without regular disinfection…

Studies have pointed out that edible ice may contain various microorganisms such as Escherichia coli because the water quality of the water source for ice making is poor or the hygiene standards are not met during the production and processing of ice cubes. “Since summer, almost every day, citizens go to the hospital for treatment because of gastrointestinal discomfort caused by drinking iced drinks.” Feng Lili, a gastroenterologist at the First People’s Hospital of Suzhou City, Anhui Province, told reporters that poor quality ice cubes are likely to be made directly from tap water. The trihalomethanes contained in tap water are the products of the reaction between chlorine used for disinfection and sterilization in water purification plants and organic matter such as food residues and plankton. Long-term consumption will have an impact on human health. In addition, supermarkets and retail markets are accustomed to using unhygienic ice cubes to preserve food, which may cause food contamination.

Relevant staff of the Academic Working Committee of the China Refrigeration Society said that if companies can

The above staff believes that in order to solve the safety and hygiene problems of edible ice, information traceability should be strengthened, especially for bagged edible ice produced by ice factories, and the water source and environment for producing ice cubes should be supervised. At the same time, unqualified ice machines should be eliminated and cleaned up, and it is stipulated that businesses are not allowed to make ice directly with tap water.

Keywords: ice-making factory ,ice machines,ice cubes,producing ice cubes,ice making,make ice,ice makers