By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
About a quarter of ice cream and ice at restaurants and drink shops in Seoul is contaminated with high levels of bacteria that can cause food poisoning, according to Seoul City, Monday.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) inspected 74 ice cream shops, fast food franchises, coffee houses and bakeries. Among the shops selling ice cream and ice, 18 shops sold products that contained more than the permitted levels of bacteria such as colon bacillus and staphylococcus aureus that can cause food poisoning.
A franchise in Gangnam-gu was found to have ice cream containing 220 colony forming units (cfu) per milliliter of colon bacillus, 22 times more than the level permitted.
As to ice, used mostly in ice coffee, 14 locations among 44 fast food franchises and coffee shops were found to be using contaminated ice.
The city government also inspected ``patbingsu,'' or shaved ice topped with fruits and red beans, at 24 bakeries and fast food chains. Among those, nine were found to be using bacteria-contaminated shaved ice. In these cases, SMG applied the same standards as for ice cream as it does not have separate standards for shaved ice.
Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium causing food poisoning symptoms such as vomiting, stomachache and nausea. Colon bacillus does not directly cause sickness, but some pathogenic bacteria belonging to the coliform group can cause food poisoning.
SMG will take disciplinary action against the shops, including suspending their business operations.