Man exposes how filthy some restaurants leave their ice machines and warns it can make you sick

A heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) worker on TikTok exposed how filthy some ice machines are at restaurants.

Last week, the TikToker, who goes by @jantheman__ on the platform, showed how dirty the water is in an undisclosed restaurant’s commercial ice machine can be, which garnered over 3.1 million views at the time of writing and over 286,900 likes since it was posted.

“Let me tell you something real quick. A lot of times, people go to a restaurant, they get sick, and they think it’s food poisoning or their food made them sick. Let me tell you— there’s a chance that it was their ice that got you sick,” @jantheman__ said in the video as he panned in on the filthy-looking ice machine. A layer of debris also floats on the murky water in the machine.

Dirty water in the ice machine.Photo courtesy of @jantheman___/TikTok

He continued: “That water is with making you sick. you can’t tell me this water hasn’t given people the runs.”

People in the video comments expressed their shock and disgust about the safety of restaurant ice.

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“I agree 100 per cent. I have stomach issues, and every time I eat at a sit-in restaurant, it always acted up the MOMENT I finished my drink. Every g*d damn time,” someone wrote.

“Where are the Health Inspectors???” another added.

Someone else, who alleged to have worked in many restaurants, noted that “they completely neglect their machines and throw the ice in buckets where raw food was stored.”

​​In a 2011 study conducted by The UK Health Protection Agency, they found enterococci and E. coli in 30 per cent of ice samples taken from 88 establishments.

Indy100 reached out to @jantheman__ for further comment.