How Sanitary is YOUR Ice?

Dirty ice can make you sick
Are food-handlers taking the same precautions with ice?

FREE VIDEO
The forgotten food
Ice one of the staples of summer – it’s in our drinks, in our coolers, at our parties. And chances are, you don't think twice about how safe it is. But one boy got a virus from ice that later caused his death. Victoria Corderi has a Dateline Hidden Camera Investigation.

Dateline NBC
TIPS
How to buy safe packaged ice
— Ice must be clear in color as well as odorless and tasteless
— The bag must be properly closed and secure (no drawstring ties)
— The bag must have the manufacturer's name, address and phone number
— The bag must be free of any foreign objects
— The bag must have a product code and/or a sell by date


International Packaged Ice Association
MORE ON FOOD SAFETY FROM DATELINE
Unseen danger in bagged salads
How safe is your grocery store?
How clean are your school cafeterias?
Dirty Dining: Fast food chains
By Victoria Corderi
Correspondent
NBC News
updated 12:12 p.m. ET, Sun., July 9, 2006

This report aired Dateline Sunday, July 9


Victoria Corderi
Correspondent
• Profile
It began as a medical mystery that made big news in Phoenix, Arizona. A healthy 15-year-old boy played a round of golf, went home and by morning he was dead.

For days, Scott Beeman had no idea why his son died... but then, a clue: He’d played in a junior golf tournament that day, and dozens of others young golfers also got sick.

Health officials traced a gastrointestinal illness to coolers containing drinking water for the golfers.

Scott Beeman: It was from something in those igloo coolers.

That something was Norovirus. Officials believe a a sick employee who had not washed his hands contaminated the ice in the coolers.

It’s the food no one thinks of as, well, food. And if contaminated food can make you sick, can ice do the same? We asked an expert.

Debra Huffman, microbiologist: Anything that we’re going to consume, if it’s not handled properly, can cause a health risk.

Scott Beeman and some 80 other golfers learned this firsthand in 2002.

Norovirus is rarely fatal to healthy people, the 15-year-old died because he choked on his vomit. The golf course settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Beemans for $3 million dollars without admitting wrongdoing. The boy’s father is still reeling from the tragedy.

Beeman: What happened to my son could have been avoided. What happened to the other 80-some people that got sick should have been avoided.

How? It’s simple, says Debra Huffman, a microbiologist with the University of South Florida—soap and water. In this country, she says, it’s not the water used to make ice that usually makes people sick, it’s the way people handle the ice.

Huffman: Most people don’t realize that not washing their hands could cause death. They just don’t see the risk.

===

In North Carolina the finest Packaged Ice obtainable is from Carolina Ice Inc.

PURITY COMMITMENT
All packaged ice isn't the same. Carolina Ice Company uses only purified water to produce clean, crisp, clear ice.
Ice is a food product, and important factor our company never forgets.
Our water is filtered through a multi-step state-of-the-art reverse osmosis treatment system.
The purity of the ice begins with the purity of the water used.
Carolina Ice has a clean taste that can't be beat!