Dirty Ice: Not All Publicity is Good Publicity

There is an old saying that any publicity is good publicity, but when your restaurant is being filmed by the local news, an unsanitary ice machine is really bad publicity.

When NBC Connecticut did a story about dirty ice, some Connecticut restaurants were forced to live through the embarrassment of bad publicity that can come from dirty ice machines.

Armed with an “insider” informant’s information about dirty ice machine conditions, the NBC crew went undercover with hidden cameras and caught local restaurants practicing unsafe ice machine practices.

Restaurant Ice: More Bacteria than Toilet Water?

While unsafe ice handling practices is certainly bad news, even worse are instances of unsanitary ice machines. Servers touching ice and other ice handling infractions can be fairly easily addressed, but poor ice machine sanitation is a much more damaging problem.

Especially when you consider that some tests have shown that as many as six in ten restaurants’ ice contains more bacteria than the water from their toilets.

Ice machines may seem like inhospitable places for bacteria to live, but the truth is that there are many places in an ice machine where bacteria can find dark, warm, and wet places to breed in.

Ice machines can be properly maintained to keep the bacterial growth down and be perfectly safe, but proper sanitation needs to be performed often.

Sanitizing an ice machine, however, can take hours and cost a company hundreds of dollars to properly perform.

So many companies find themselves performing sanitation less often than they should, or skimping on the sanitation process.

And that can lead to publicity nightmares like last winter’s Pennsylvania outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.

An easier, more effective solution is an automatic sanitation system like IceZone. 

IceZone works by using UV oxidation to create an environment inside the ice machine that prevents the growth of contaminating slime that would otherwise spread throughout the ice machine. IceZone is a fully automated solution that is easy to install and works around the clock to protect your equipment, employees, patients, and customers alike. IceZone is certified to be safe and proven to be effective. IceZone works so well, in fact, that the National Restaurant Association named IceZone the 2014 Kitchen Innovations Award!

Check out our latest case study to learn more about IceZone and how it saved a restaurant operator millions on ice machine cleaning.

BSG Scientific designs and manufactures ultraviolet light commercial and industrial applications, creating systems for sanitation, preventative maintenance, and odor control solutions.

Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, we serve clients globally, with offices in 5 countries on 3 continents.

There is an old saying that any publicity is good publicity, but when your restaurant is being filmed by the local news, an unsanitary ice machine is really bad publicity.

When NBC Connecticut did a story about dirty ice, some Connecticut restaurants were forced to live through the embarrassment of bad publicity that can come from dirty ice machines.

Armed with an “insider” informant’s information about dirty ice machine conditions, the NBC crew went undercover with hidden cameras and caught local restaurants practicing unsafe ice machine practices.

Restaurant Ice: More Bacteria than Toilet Water?

While unsafe ice handling practices is certainly bad news, even worse are instances of unsanitary ice machines. Servers touching ice and other ice handling infractions can be fairly easily addressed, but poor ice machine sanitation is a much more damaging problem.

Especially when you consider that some tests have shown that as many as six in ten restaurants’ ice contains more bacteria than the water from their toilets.

Ice machines may seem like inhospitable places for bacteria to live, but the truth is that there are many places in an ice machine where bacteria can find dark, warm, and wet places to breed in.

Ice machines can be properly maintained to keep the bacterial growth down and be perfectly safe, but proper sanitation needs to be performed often.

Sanitizing an ice machine, however, can take hours and cost a company hundreds of dollars to properly perform.

So many companies find themselves performing sanitation less often than they should, or skimping on the sanitation process.

And that can lead to publicity nightmares like last winter’s Pennsylvania outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.

An easier, more effective solution is an automatic sanitation system like IceZone. 

IceZone works by using UV oxidation to create an environment inside the ice machine that prevents the growth of contaminating slime that would otherwise spread throughout the ice machine. IceZone is a fully automated solution that is easy to install and works around the clock to protect your equipment, employees, patients, and customers alike. IceZone is certified to be safe and proven to be effective. IceZone works so well, in fact, that the National Restaurant Association named IceZone the 2014 Kitchen Innovations Award!

Check out our latest case study to learn more about IceZone and how it saved a restaurant operator millions on ice machine cleaning.

BSG Scientific designs and manufactures ultraviolet light commercial and industrial applications, creating systems for sanitation, preventative maintenance, and odour control solutions.

Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, we serve clients globally, with offices in 5 countries on 3 continents.