P.J.
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Please avoid Fruit Juice with ice in road side shops in Chennai
Almost every fresh fruit juice stall and vendor in Chennai uses ice made for industrial purposes that is manufactured in the hundreds of unlicenced units that dot the city. The ice contains a variety of germs and disease-causing bacteria, including Escherichia coli and salmonella.
Health experts in the city report a sudden spurt in cases of jaundice, typhoid and diarrhoea and say an increase in consumption of beverages chilled with contaminated ice is the most likely cause of people falling ill.
A TOI investigation of ice factories, retail outlets and fruit shops in the city found that the manufacturing, supply, storage and use of ice are completely unmonitored.
Ice manufacturing units in places like Thiruvottiyur, Royapuram, Royapettah, Mylapore and Ambattur operate in filthy conditions. They do not have any quality control systems or concerns about hygiene. The units make ice from untreated water drawn from borewells or supplied by water tankers. The units use chemicals to speed up the freezing process and store the huge blocks of ice in squalid storerooms. Wholesalers transport the ice in dirty sacks for sale.
"Most roadside vendors make do with industrial ice, which is unfit for human consumption," said S Elango, former director of public health.
Read more here:
Cold & deadly: Bad ice spreads disease - The Times of India
Almost every fresh fruit juice stall and vendor in Chennai uses ice made for industrial purposes that is manufactured in the hundreds of unlicenced units that dot the city. The ice contains a variety of germs and disease-causing bacteria, including Escherichia coli and salmonella.
Health experts in the city report a sudden spurt in cases of jaundice, typhoid and diarrhoea and say an increase in consumption of beverages chilled with contaminated ice is the most likely cause of people falling ill.
A TOI investigation of ice factories, retail outlets and fruit shops in the city found that the manufacturing, supply, storage and use of ice are completely unmonitored.
Ice manufacturing units in places like Thiruvottiyur, Royapuram, Royapettah, Mylapore and Ambattur operate in filthy conditions. They do not have any quality control systems or concerns about hygiene. The units make ice from untreated water drawn from borewells or supplied by water tankers. The units use chemicals to speed up the freezing process and store the huge blocks of ice in squalid storerooms. Wholesalers transport the ice in dirty sacks for sale.
"Most roadside vendors make do with industrial ice, which is unfit for human consumption," said S Elango, former director of public health.
Read more here:
Cold & deadly: Bad ice spreads disease - The Times of India