Opting for a Starbucks or Costa iced coffee? Watch out for faecal bacteria

Ice contaminated by being touched by unclean hands: BBC One's Watchdog programme

Ice from three high street coffee chains in the UK has been found to contain faecal bacteria following an investigation by BBC One’s Watchdog programme. The analysis that I carried out on behalf of the consumer series, found that ice used in drinks at Caffè Nero, Starbucks and Costa Coffee contained high levels of faecal coliform bacteria, with seven out of ten samples from Costa and three out of ten samples from the other two chains testing positive.

For the investigation, the Watchdog team took swabs and ice samples from ten coffee shops in each of the three