An investigation by the BBC has found that there is literal shit in the ice served at three coffee chains in the UK.
That means your cheap chain coffee store iced coffee or Unicorn Frappuccino or whatever cold thing you like from Starbucks, and if you’re in the UK from Costa Coffee or Caffè Nero, just straight up has poop in it. POOP. IN. IT.
The investigation found faecal coliform bacteria in samples of iced water taken from all three coffee chains, with a positive test found for seven out of 10 samples taken from Costa, and three out of 10 for Nero and Starbucks. You are more likely to get shit in your water at Costa than you are not to. ~retches~
Costa, Nero and Starbucks are apparently aware of the findings, and are taking steps to fix it.
Microbiologist Margarita Gomez Escalada from Leeds Beckett University carried out the analysis. She said that the ice was probably contaminated by dirty hands, as well as ice machines and ice buckets that were not cleaned properly:
“The levels allowed by law of bacteria in tap water are super low, so we would find say maybe 10 microorganisms per millilitre – we found hundreds per millilitre.”“The fact that we have found so many bacteria, it just increases the risk [of getting sick]. Some of the bacteria we identified were actually what we call opportunistic pathogens, which are bacteria that to healthy people do not often cause disease, but they cause disease to people [whose] immunity is reduced.”
The investigation sampled iced water from ten coffee shops for each chain. It looked at the total bacteria count and the faecal bacteria count. Some samples showed high levels of both.
Last year, the BBC found high levels of the same bacteria in ice taken from a KFC in Birmingham.
Nope, nope, noooooooope.
Still, the head of policy at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Tony Lewis says that you can’t “generalise from the small sample size that we have got here“, and that the findings point to problems at the specific chain stores tested: “It is not something to panic over.”
“The public should be reassured, this will have been dealt with.”
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Comedy Central.
