It’s a fact that Mainers eat one meal out of three outside the home. That is probably why all the fast-food restaurants and the more traditional ones always seem busy. Whether it is burger joints, taco haciendas, doughnut shops or pizza parlors, citizens busy with heavy work and family responsibilities regularly choose to fuel up easily.

The concept of “I’m not up for cooking tonight” runs rampant across the land. The dining public demands clean and safe handling of foods, and by and large they get exactly that. National food chains as well as family-run restaurants work very hard to train their employees in safe food storage and preparation. The state and municipal health inspectors help ensure food safety. However, there is one food product that often does not appear on the radar screen when it comes to food safety. Neither the consumer, the restaurant management nor health inspectors consistently pick up on the fact that ice contamination can be a serious health hazard.

Perhaps this column could be better timed for the summer season when ice consumption is at its peak instead of the first week in December. The reality is that restaurant ice contamination is a year-round threat and often goes overlooked or undetected. Perhaps that is why ice is often called “the forgotten food.” Ice that is contaminated does not look or smell different, which is sometimes a tip-off to bad food. The culprits are microscopic and invisible to the naked eye. Hepatitis, Norovirus, salmonella and other gastrointestinal gremlins can and do exist on ice.

These bad guys can be a real threat to the old, the young and anyone with a compromised immune system. Intestinal distress, vomiting and diarrhea are often the symptoms. These are rarely fatal, although it may not seem that way at the time. Vomiting can result in choking and asphyxiation. Often the symptoms are mild to moderate and attributed to bad food and forgotten in two or three days. These microscopic intestinal terrorists often thrive in a cool ice environment, contrary to most public opinion.

How do these bugs get on perfectly clean Bangor water turned to ice in that spotless, clean-as-a-whistle fast-food restaurant? The answer is simple: human contamination. Manually filling ice machines by employees who fail to wash their hands properly is frequently the cause of most ice contamination. Using dirty, contaminated ice scoops and other ice-handling utensils are another possible source. While an indelicate subject at best, fecal contamination of ice is a reality, brought about, once again, by lackadaisical or nonexistent hand washing.

What is the savvy, health-conscious, hungry consumer to do to reduce the odds of acquiring Montezuma’s revenge?

Use only ice machines that do not require human filling and handling. Ask the store manager about how their ice is handled and your concerns about potential contamination. Perhaps your queries will result in more overall sanitation training sessions for store employees or at least put the manager on notice that consumers are concerned. Observe how employees manually fill the ice machines. Do they use sanitary food service gloves? Do their hands come directly in contact with the ice? What about ice-handling scoops and related utensils? Perhaps as a last resort, the restaurant patron will opt out of using ice at all, a very difficult decision for many “ice addicts.”

Ice contamination can also occur at church picnics, beach parties, golf tournaments and other private or public functions. The source of contamination would be the same or similar and, with less regulation by inspectors and without written policies, ice-handling practices might be less than sanitary.

Potential ice contamination should be on the radar screens of all dining consumers. If the Titanic had been so equipped with radar (invented 23 years after it sank), neither it, nor us, would have to suffer that sinking feeling because of bad ice.

Consumer Forum is a collaboration of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast CONTACT, Maine’s membership-funded, nonprofit consumer organization. Individual and business memberships are available at modest rates. Volunteers are needed. For help with consumer-related problems and information, write Consumer Forum, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329.