Never thought about it but too many hands, and I imagine just cutting the lemon on the counter would not help.

I would think that anything at all that cooks have to touch has the potential to have no telling what on it.
I guess we just have to try not to think of all of that when we dine out.
Lulie

Heard that, yuck!

I have my own lemon tree and don't order lemon slices for my beverages when we are out........maybe I should start taking my own lemons when we have fish while dining out.
(But I tend not to worry about germs.)

I usually have a lemon slice in my water or ice tea at resturants but no more.Thanks for posting this information.
Lois

Just another reason why I don't care to eat in restaurants. But wouldn't that be true of anything fresh, like tomatoes for instance?

Sue

That takes care of that!!! I always ask for lots of lemon for my tea and always eat all the lemon also, peel and all. Never happen again. Yech!!!!

And just how did fecal matter get on the lemons? I for sure will be declining lemon with water or seafood. I'll just try and remember to grab my little squeeze bottle of Real Lemon or Real Lime.

Sue

LOVED the comment (about fecal matter) at the end; 'We usually wait til the end of our meal to have a brownie.' ROFLMBO!! Gotta remember that... Nancy

For years I would order iced tea with extra lemons...until one night we were sitting in a restaurant and I was squeezing my lemons and putting them in my tea....when I started thinking about ALL the hands that had touched that lemon before I put it IN my drink! That was the last time I ordered extra lemons!!! I will still squeeze my lemon on fish, but not put it into my drink.

I didn't watch the video...but I can imagine. There are soooooooooooooo many things that are as bad, or WORSE that we just take for granted. If I would allow myself, I would/could Sooo easily become a germaphobe!! But, I will not allow myself to do that! I just try to wash my hands often and not dwell on the 'bad stuff'!

WHY do so many waiters/waitresses set down a glass of water or whatever, holding it with his or her hand at the TOP of the glass where it will hit your mouth?? This drives me nuts.

I have a thing about lemon slices after "The Lemon Incident".

We were out to eat. Unusual for me, I was very thirsty and drained my glass of iced tea and had it refilled. After my meal I decided I wanted to eat my lemon (with salt). I removed it from the rim of my glass (I had left it there - not a squeezer here ROFL) and saw..........a BITE MARK.

A perfect crescent of teeth marks where somebody had BITTEN THE LEMON. That somebody was NOT ME. I sort of gasped and stared in horror at it, stifled a bit of a scream and got kind of giggly like. Mostly because at that moment, I was pretty much completely unhinged and as close to the abyss of insanity as I have ever been.

Turns out the lemon slices were on the bar right next to the waiting area, in front of the counter seats for those having drinks waiting for their table. I figure somebody removed their lemon from their drink, and took a bite then left it on the bar top. Then a bar employee saw the wedge on the bar top next to the bowl, figured it fell out, and put it back in there - where it sat waiting to be placed on MY drink. I don't want to believe the other possibility - that a person purposely bit the lemon then placed it back in the bowl. Or that they re-used a lemon from another glass.

I still don't think I have fully recovered. When I place a drink order I insist on NO LEMON PLEASE!

They have since moved the lemons.

LOL Dances, I stopped ordering lemon in my drinks after you first posted the "lemon incident" Yuck.

Good idea thought to bring your own especially for a cocktail.

Anne

Funny you should post this. We love to go to happy hour for the cheap appetizers. Sometimes we sit at the bar and can see how the drinks are prepared. I started noticing that they grab that lemon with their bare hands. However, I continued to order a lemon with my iced tea. Last week, sitting at the bar, I ordered my usual ice tea with lemon and once again watched him take the lemon slice with his bare hand and stick it on my glass. I decided that no longer am I going to ask for that lemon slice. Not worth it.

When we were at a restaurant in Seattle, I could see from our table the area where the waiters sliced the bread. They used their bare hands to hold the bread while they cut it. No hand washing prior happened.