Survival of bacterial enteropathogens in the ice of popular drinks.

We examined the survival of four bacterial enteropathogens frozen in ice and subsequently allowed to melt in various popular drinks. The counts of all the organisms were markedly lowered by freezing alone, and the numbers were further decreased by exposure to some of the drinks. Nevertheless, none of the organisms were completely eliminated as a result of freezing for 24 hours followed by melting in any of the test drinks, even when the drink was 86-proof tequila.