Cold & deadly: Bad ice spreads disease

Contaminated Juice Causes Jaundice, Diarrhoea

Chennai: The heat of the summer is shimmering off the road. What could be better than an ice-cold beverage?
    Just about anything else if it’s coming from the neighbourhood juice stall.
    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.
    Chennai Ice Manufacturers Association secretary J Chandreshkaran said the difference in price forces juice outlets to use industrial ice. “There are few takers for ice made of RO-treated water. A block of industrial ice costs 1.50 per kg wholesale and retails at around 4 per kg. Ice from RO-treated water costs 4 per kg wholesale and the retail price can be as high as 12 per kg.”
    With adults and children falling ill, people in the city are worried.
    “People are obviously consuming more chilled juice these days because it is summer. Children are most vulnerable to diseases caused by germs in juice or ice candy,” said Shanthi Raj, a resident of Kilpauk.
    Consumer activists say that there should be an effective mechanism to ensure that vendors and restaurants use ice that is manufactured hygienically.
    Food safety officials admit that they have received complaints about ice-making units. “We will conduct inspections and take action against those breaking the rules,” a health department official said.
DIRE AND ICE
Ice manufacturing units operate in Thiruvottiyur, Royapuram, Royapettah, Mylapore and Ambattur
They supply ice to outlets that sell fruit juice, hotels, hospitals, bars and fish markets
    These units source water from borewells, Metrowater pipelines or from wells at the units
    Most units in the city function in unhygienic conditions without licences
    The units thrive with no system in place to keep check on them by the food safety department