People skeptical about quality of ice used by road side vendors

Tandur: Doubts are being expressed over the quality of ice being used in preparing various soft drinks by road side push cart vendors during the current summer. Vendors of soda, fruit juices, lassi, badam milk, lemon juice, butter milk are using the ice whose quality is said to be of sub-standard.

The vendors buy them from ice manufacturers. The supervision of municipal as well as food security officers on the manufacturers is almost nil. The ice is being made in unhygienic conditions using bore well water. Chances are that the content of fluoride in the water could be high. There were complaints of people suffering from throat pain, allergies, head ache and so on.

The two ice making units in the town are located at very high air pollution areas. The one located opposite to the Lingayat burial ground and by the side of the road is susceptible to air pollution on account of very high volume of vehicles plying along the road in front of the ice factory.

In the ice factory, rusted iron boxes are being filled with ‘polluted’ water. The water in the rusted iron boxes will become ice after 10 hours. Each ice block is being sold for Rs 350 or Rs 450.

District Medical officer Dr Jaya Gopal insisted that the units should use purified water to make ice. Using the bore well water might health problems caused by high fluoride content in it. If the water quality is not good lung problems may arise, he added. He is advising people to use only refrigerated water or water stored in earthenware vessels.