Ice cream quality check serves up chilling results

An ice cream investigation has revealed almost one in four served to the public suffer serious hygiene flaws.The Upper Austrian Labour Chamber (AKOÖ) said today (Tues) that hygiene specialists who examined ice cream on sale at parlours in the provincial capital Linz found only eight of the 19 probes they took to be of passable standard.Three probes were at risk from salmonella and other bacteria, while a further three were “significantly below” the hygiene standards set by the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology.In five of the cases the poor quality related to vanilla flavoured ice cream, which research conducted last year showed to be one of Austrians’ most favourite flavours, AKOÖ said.The findings come just weeks after the body said five of the nine probed packs of ready-to-eat salads on sale at supermarkets in the same city were inedible.AKOÖ official Georg Rathwallner stressed another three products were found of “below par” quality while just one salad’s quality was rated faultless. He appealed to consumers preferring pre-packed cut salads to wash the products with cold water before consumption and not to buy salads with limp leaves.The consumer protection expert pointed out that test results of fresh, unprocessed salads were much better. He announced seven of 10 tested salads were found perfect and three of “poor” quality.