ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 23, 1996 TAG: 9602230056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
IT HASN'T CAUSED this much controversy since the Boston Tea Party way back in 1773.
Last August, a customer in a Cincinnati restaurant looked at a glass of cloudy tea, sniffed it and said it smelled like sewage.
The tea did have a tinge of bacteria in it, and that finding touched off a controversy that has now dried up the tea supply at one Roanoke Valley restaurant chain where freshly brewed tea is a menu staple.
Yes, this is a real tempest in a real teapot.
On Feb. 6, Wendy's International suspended iced tea sales at its 4,000-plus restaurants. The Roanoke Valley eateries handed out notes to customers saying they weren't selling the beverage because of public warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the "potential health risks inherent in brewed iced tea."
But was there a public warning? Not in Virginia.
By day's end Thursday, Wendy's locally had decided to go low key with any explanation. Wendy's International said it expects its franchisees to be back in the tea business this week, but with a change in its dispensing procedures. It didn't say what those changes would be.
The tea scare, labeled a "brewhaha" in the January issue of Food Protection Report, has more to do with how brewing equipment is cleaned than what's hanging out in the tea leaves, said Dick Tabb, environmental health manager for the Roanoke and Alleghany Health Departments.
But here's how we got to this point:
Back in August, the Cincinnati Health Department issued a health advisory after finding high coliform levels in iced tea in some restaurants. It was reported as though the tea were full of fecal matter, which wasn't true.
To squelch the growing misinterpretation, the Food and Drug Administration's chief microbiologist, Joseph Madden, issued a December memo. It explained that just because Klebsiella, the bacterium most prevalent in tea, also shows up in fecal coliform tests doesn't mean the source of it is you-know-what.
The National Restaurant Association's leaders chimed in that the problem wasn't bad tea, but the "casual misuse of the term 'fecal.'''
Some health workers believe the tea issue continues to boil because the news media don't have enough topics to report on. But they also say that certain precautions with tea are advised.
Tea lovers need to be aware that Kombucha tea, a popular health drink made from a "mushroom" of yeasts and bacteria, might have been responsible for one death in Iowa last spring.
Also, tea should not be stored in containers made of ceramic or lead crystal.
And to inhibit microbial growth in tea, follow these procedures:
Brew only enough to use within a few hours.
Brew at 175 degrees or above.
Never hold tea for more than 8 hours.
Wash, rinse and sanitize equipment by dismantling hoses, reservoirs, gaskets, etc., and using brushes to properly clean all crevices, including the dispensing spigot.
That should eliminate all the nasties.
The CDC also plans to issue a notice that there's little evidence that that iced tea could serve as a source of pathogenic outbreaks.
"We want this to go away," a Burger King executive said in the food newsletter.
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