Feb 27, 2008 1:46 am US/Eastern
The Bad Lemon At Your Restaurant Table
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
We all know the dangers of uncooked meat and contaminated produce. There is a newly discovered food danger we should be aware of. CBS4 Health Specialist Dr. Sean Kenniff shared information on the new health concern.
Microbiologist Anne Lagrange Loving said when a bartender places a lemon wedge in you glass of water, they are apparently spiking your drink with germs. That's because the bartender grabbed a pen with his right hand, used the same hand to grab a slice of lemon, then it goes straight from his hands to you drink.
"Any of these bacteria could make you sick, make you very sick," said Loving.
The college science professor was shocked by her own research after swabbing dozens of lemon rinds at 21 New Jersey restaurants.
She found that the samples showed 25 different kinds of bacteria, from those found in saliva and skin cells to e-coli, found in feces.
She said 70 percent of the lemon wedges she tested had disease causing bacteria.
"I don't need a shmear of feces with my food. I think that's pretty disgusting," said Loving.
CBS4 decided to test lemon wedges from six restaurants in South Florida to see whether we'd get the same findings as the researcher got in New Jersey.
From lemons delivered by waiters on plates at our fanciest restaurants to those you get yourself out of bins at the sandwich shops each rind was placed in a sterile plastic bag, then brought to Kappa Labs in Miami for testing.
Loving published an article on her findings and says if you get sick from a contaminated slice of lemon, you'll likely have no idea how it happened.
"It could have been from dirty fingers, cutting boards, if they were cutting meat and then they cut the lemons on the same boards," she said.
After three days, we got our test results back and good news: All six restaurants, the bacteria counts were low.
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