Toilet water has allegedly been used at a Starbucks café in Hong Kong.
A local newspaper reports that the Starbucks cafe located in the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong has been using water from a faucet in the restroom to make its drinks for customers.
According to Apple Daily, the Starbucks café which was opened back in October 2011 has taken photos of a faucet in a run down restroom with a sign that says "Starbucks Only."
The faucet is located a few feet away from the urinal.
Click here to see photos of the Starbucks café in question.
Starbucks spokeswoman Wendy Pang explained to AFP why the water from the restroom had to be used. "There is no direct water supply to that particular store, that's why we need to obtain the drinking water from the nearest source in the building." She reassured customers saying that a filtration system has been put in the store so that the water is of high quality to meet World Health Organization standards.
However, a filtration system may remove bacteria from the toilet water, but viruses may still be lingering.
Ben Cowling, an associate professor at University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health, told HK Magazine: "If the staff need to frequently visit the toilet they may increase the risk of bringing other pathogens from the washroom into their food and drink preparation area."
The beverage company reportedly told AFP that staff collected water from the toilet area less than fives times a day. Starbucks also said the faucet was used only for collecting drinking water and not for anything else.
The offending store is now using distilled water to serve its customers.
