Why You Should Think Twice Before Ordering Lemon Water At A Restaurant

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At most restaurants, while you take your time perusing the menu, servers will bring complimentary water over to the table (though they're not technically required to). Whether it's because you like a little extra flavor in otherwise bland water, or you know the health benefits of lemon water, you might ask for some lemons. If you've been doing this forever, like most of us, you might be shocked to find that lemon water can carry tons of germs at restaurants. Even at fancy restaurants, there are things you should avoid ordering, and lemon water is one of them.

At restaurants, lemons are often treated like garnish, not food. That means no standard for cleanliness. They arrive in bulk from distributors, usually unwashed. During bar prep, staff slice them quickly and toss the pieces into open containers. On a busy shift, those slices get grabbed dozens of times by different people, often with bare hands, in between pouring drinks and wiping surfaces. Gloves aren't always worn. Hand washing isn't always happening.

We hate to tell you, but it's those same wedges that go straight into your water, peel and all. Whatever was on the outside of that lemon — pesticide residue, dirt, bacteria from transport — is now floating in your drink. Combine that with the bar's heavy touch traffic, and you've got high risk for cross-contamination that's sure to sour your craving for lemon water.

At restaurants, lemons are often cut and stored with the rind intact, which is where the bulk of contamination lives. Once submerged in water, those bacteria can leach into the drink. A Journal of Environmental Health study tested lemon slices from 21 restaurants, and more than half contained microbial growths. For many of the studied lemon slices, those growths included bacteria like E. coli, enterococcus, and other microbes linked to fecal matter and skin contamination. In other words, across numerous restaurants and numerous sliced lemons, most of them had bacteria on them, which is enough to make us more than wary of ordering lemon water at a restaurant ever again.

Sending back the lemon or asking how it was handled probably won't get you far. If lemon water is a staple for you, you can still enjoy it more sanitarily by bringing the lemon yourself. Obviously, you don't want to go lugging whole lemons around in your bag every time you go out to eat. What you can try, however, are nifty portable True Lemon packets! They're made from crystallized lemon and dissolve easily into your water for a sugar-free, shelf-stable option that offers the same flavor without the contamination risk. 

Alternatively, there are pocket-friendly 2.5 ounce ReaLemon Juice bottles on Amazon that you can squeeze into your glass. If you order lemon water regularly, it's a simple upgrade that keeps you in control of what you're drinking.