You may have seen a headline recently warning you to avoid airline ice cubes (or avoid drinking the coffee or the water onboard). I say baloney.
Flight Attendant Suggests You Avoid Ice Cubes Onboard, But I’ll Take The Risk
On reddit, a flight attendant warns:
“Don’t get ice in your drink. The ice is put in a tray with a scoop, and the trays don’t get cleaned very often.”
Is it now, or is the ice left in a bag and the bag placed in the tray?
“Every surface on the plane is touched by hundreds of people daily and not often disinfected. We don’t have the opportunity to wash our hands at all during the beverage service.”
Do hundreds of people really touch the ice scoop each day? Or is that maybe just an exaggeration?
The New York Post warns:
Even if the ice tray is clean, the ice cubes inside it may not be. Airline ice, which is procured from third-party sources, is likely of dubious quality — because all ice is.
Is it really now?
Forgive me for being skeptical, but just like I drink airline coffee made with airline water, I’m not going to stop using airline ice to cool down my drinks.
I do understand there is a risk of bacteria in airplane ice. I also understand the safest course of action is to simply bring your own bottle of water onboard (not that the TSA makes that easy…).
But I find life far too short to worry about what micro-organisms are crawling over my strawberries or inside my ice cubes.
I have experienced water poisoning before (in Egypt after accidentally drinking tap water when I thought it was bottled). No, it’s not great to be tethered to the restroom.
But I’m going to trust US supply chains…and I’m going to keep using ice (and those dirty lime wedges too) in my club soda. It’s a risk I’m wiling to take.
How about you? Ice or no ice?
For that matter, all commercial ice is suspect. Our weekly restaurant inspections often cite improperly maintained ice makers.
I can speak from experience at Spirit. Our ice was delivered by Reddy Ice and stored in a merchandiser (cooler) they maintained. If the bag touched the ground, my staff was to discard it (meaning anywhere from cooler to sitting on counter on the plane). For catered flights, it came from the same commercial kitchen as the food (and Reddy Ice delivered there).
We got inspected by the FDA (packaged ice is considered a food) annually. We kept logs of ice cooler temperature and cleaning (had two coolers so we could sanitize one when empty and fill the other). FDA also went on airplanes and it is actually the actions of flight attendants that are the biggest violations to food safety. When they throw the bags onto the ground to break the ice, that’s a violation as the bag then can get holes and be exposed to whatever is on the galley floor or jetway floor – plus aircraft maintenance didn’t like that because it wasn’t good for the galley floor and could weaken it. When they put the bags in the beer bucket or store beer and wine around the bag that’s a violation. Using a cup to scoop and then putting that cup back into the bag is a violation.
Plus FDA inspects water cabinets and carts used to fill the plane. Not all airlines do this but Spirit made us take a pH of the water daily and log it with a test strip taped in the book. That was because we shared a water source with United and couldn’t guarantee their sanitation. Haha. Airplane water systems are also tested regularly and it is just as rare to get bacteria from it as you would anywhere else. You are far worse off getting water from the soda gun at the airline club in the terminal.
So I’m with you. I’ll take ice and I’ll drink the coffee.
40 years of lying all over the World and plenty of iced drinks. I’ve never had any mystery illnesses after a flight. I’ll have ice please.
That’s because commercial ice in the US is relatively safe. In̈ restaurant, slightlymore risk..
I’ll stick with the wine or beer without ice .
In certain countries is Southeast Asia , in the country towns , they drink warm beer with local ice added to cool it , in glasses . Hey , when you are very thirsty , it was good .
“But I find life far too short to worry about what micro-organisms are crawling over my strawberries or inside my ice cubes”
That is a dangerous and lackadaisical attitude. What if an as airline doesn’t care and flies with defective engine parts because it’s too lazy. Or a nurses purposely does sloppy work?
No, the correct attitude is to assess if dangerous and, if a reasonably dangerous risk, take appropriate action.
In the 1950’s, many people were too lazy to think about UV from sunlight and refused to use sunscreen. That’s why Florida has a high rate of skin cancer. Certain skin cancers kill.
FYI, ice in some 3rd world countries does reliably cause illness.
@derek … Good advice , but what are you going to do in India , if you are afraid to handle the moist dirty money , or eat or drink anything ?
I got sick in India after eating one peanut at a luxury class hotel bar , with gin and tonic . ( It might have been the one peanut , or it might have been the lime , or the ice , or the money .
The safety of drinking water while aboard airplanes has been dubious for years, Matthew.
Here is a very short article which I wrote back on June 25, 2010:
https://thegatewithbriancohen.com/how-safe-is-it-to-drink-water-from-airplane-lavatory-faucets/
I may revisit this topic…
If it is in a bottle or can , I’ll drink it . No ice or water needed .
Water from the lav isn’t usually potable and says as such. It’s potable going in but not advertised as such coming out.
If the planes water is filled in the US or Western Europe or parts of Asia, I’ll drink the coffee. But on the ground outside of the US and Canada, I want my water to have bubbles in it.
I got sick coming back from Senegal on a work trip. Only place I had ice was a Western European embassy reception. Im glad that DL 757 to JFK had such a premium lavatory as I saw more of it than my lie flat seat. Admittedly outstanding flight attendants who helped me keep a sense of humor about it (“we just opened some wine, want the cork?”) while coaching me to sip water on 15 minute intervals.
Most restaurant food service in the US is more risky than coffee or ice on a US originating plane. Won’t see me at a salad bar….
In 25+ years of airline flying it’s safe to say I’ve drunk more airline coffee and consumed more drinks cooled with airline ice than most people combined. Never ever has it made me ill.
What’s your opinion about the body accumulating micro-plastics contained in drink bottles and coffee cups?
@Joe … Drink only watermelon chunks , which you carve from the new watermelon . Problem solved .
I avoid ice anywhere but my house since I know where the water comes from. I usually only drink water (still and sparkling) and wine so there is no need for ice.
Santastico … Drink a bowl of gazpacho with a cup of vodka added .
Is that why on every flight i take there are at least 2-3 people who die? Cause of the ice?
I worked for the airlines (TWA & AA) for 43 years. One of my many jobs was filling up the water on different aircraft. Not once have I ever seen the water tank on the plane or in the portable water truck ever changed or disinfected.
I’m sure there’s lots of maintenance actions you haven’t seen. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
Agreed. I’ve heard the same thing about in-room coffeemakers at hotels. I use them all the time. Sure, every now and then I get one that just looks suspiciously scummy and I’ll pass, but we have immune systems for a reason. In fact, living in a completely sterile environment where everything is constantly sanitized– such as what was pushed by “experts” during the covid hysteria days– is actually detrimental for immune response.
With over a decade of restaurant management experience in a pervious life, I can tell you without a doubt the bigger concern within the context of food safety when dining out is misuse and overuse of cleaning chemicals in a food service environment.
As someone who made his living in the restaurant industry, I can guarantee airline is no worse than almost any restaurant in the world. If you open the ice machine you will see black mold and green slime growing. Even with the industry standard of having an outside company come in and clean it 3 times a year, it will grow quickly. It’s a fact of life and few ever become sick from it.
Like sausage making, you don’t want to see the process, but the end result fine.
Exactly the truth. Although I always prefer wine, and shockingly tell the server I like my beer in the bottle, my quirks have nothing to do with anything but I don’t like ice. Good grief this must be why I am still alive! : )
Yup!
Then you get the hotshot manager who comes in and “gets it cleaned up” to look good in an upcoming corporate visit by pouring a bunch of non food-safe chemical into the machine, giving it a scrub, and returning it to service because “it looks clean”. No need to follow manufacturer’s cleaning procedure, no need to read MSDS sheets for the chemicals, no need to take the time to learn how to do it right. Just get it looking clean.
I’ll take a little harmless pink mold over caustic chemical residue any day. And the ice machine is just one example. As I said, overuse and misuse of chemical is a major danger in a restaurant’s operation.
Exactly this. As a fellow restaurant professional, I wrote much the same thing in response to the post about coffee. Airplane ice is better regulated than the ice in your home and of little risk to people with healthy immune systems.
Who are these dumb flight attendants moonlighting on social media and why aren’t their employers doing more to identify them and terminate their employment? In no other industry would revealing insider knowledge from your field of employment be tolerated.
I don’t know about other flight attendants, but please don’t lump us all in the same group!
I was a flight attendant for 41 years. I retired during COVID in 2020. When I started my career, our ice buckets were filled without the use of plastic bags and for scoops we used plastic cups. We used to drink the melted ice water. Never been a problem. My airline was very small then , only one base as opposed to now multiple bases. When I retired we had been using (for years!) scoops and the ice was delivered in plastic bags (which were then placed in our ice buckets). Never once got sick from the ice. The ice comes from the kitchens that cater and is never made with airplane water.
Ice.