That little lemon wedge sitting on the rim of your glass looks harmless enough. Maybe even refreshing. But a growing body of research says those citrus slices are some of the germiest things at any restaurant. A 2007 study found that nearly 70% of restaurant lemon slices had bacteria and other microbes living on them. Before you squeeze that next wedge into your water, here are nine reasons to think twice.
Most restaurant lemons arrive unwashed
Think about the last time you bought fruit at the grocery store. Did you wash it before eating it? Most people do. But restaurants often skip that step entirely with lemons. Because lemons are treated more like a garnish than actual food, they don’t always get the same careful treatment as other ingredients. They arrive in bulk from distributors, and many arrive unwashed. They get tossed into prep areas and sliced up without a proper scrub.
Even when lemons do get rinsed, a quick pass under the faucet isn’t enough to remove everything clinging to the rind. Restaurants often rinse lemons rather than scrub them thoroughly. That means pesticide residue, dirt, and bacteria from transport can stick around. All of that ends up in your drink the moment someone drops a wedge into your glass. The rind, which is the part most likely to carry contamination, sits right there soaking in your water or cocktail.
Bare hands touch those wedges constantly
Here’s something to consider. At a busy bar or restaurant, dozens of different people may touch those lemon slices throughout a single shift. Servers grab wedges between clearing tables and taking orders. Bartenders handle them while pouring drinks and wiping down surfaces. An undercover report by ABC News found that employees regularly picked up lemon wedges with their bare hands. No tongs. No gloves. Just fingers that had been touching everything else in the restaurant moments before.
The problem gets worse during a rush. When orders are piling up and customers are waiting, handwashing can fall to the bottom of the priority list. Servers on Reddit have shared stories about handling lemon slices right after busing dirty tables. It’s not that these workers are careless on purpose. It’s just that things move fast, and small steps get skipped. Unfortunately, those small steps are the ones that keep germs out of your drink.
The bacteria found on lemons is alarming
A study published in the Journal of Environmental Health tested lemon slices from 21 different restaurants over 43 separate visits. The researchers swabbed both the flesh and the rinds of 76 lemon slices. The results were not pretty. A total of 25 different microorganisms turned up on those slices, including E. coli and various types of yeast. Nearly 70% of all the lemons tested showed microbial growth. That’s not a one-off finding from a single grimy bar.
Philip Tierno, a professor at New York University School of Medicine, has run similar tests multiple times. He told Elle that his results are always consistent. He finds bacteria linked to respiratory secretions, skin contamination, and fecal waste on restaurant lemon wedges. That includes things like norovirus, enterococcus, and staph. These aren’t rare or exotic germs. They’re the everyday kind that spread through poor hand hygiene, and they end up on lemon rinds sitting in open containers behind the bar.
Wet lemons spread germs even faster
Dry surfaces are actually less likely to transfer bacteria than wet ones. That’s bad news for lemon wedges, which are almost always damp. A 2017 study found that E. coli transferred from hands to wet lemons 100% of the time. Every single time someone with E. coli on their hands touched a wet lemon, the bacteria moved right over. That’s a perfect transfer rate, and it’s deeply unsettling when you think about how many hands touch those slices.
Now picture the typical setup behind a restaurant bar. Lemon wedges sit in a shallow tray or container, often with chilled soda water to keep them looking fresh. They’re wet, exposed, and easy to grab. Every server who reaches in transfers whatever is on their hands directly to the fruit. And when that fruit goes into your glass, the moisture helps those bacteria spread right into your drink. It’s basically the ideal setup for germ transfer.
Cross-contaminated knives make things worse
It’s not just hands that spread germs to lemon wedges. The knives used to slice them play a role too. In a busy kitchen or bar, the same knife might be used to cut raw meat, prep other garnishes, and then slice lemons. If the knife isn’t properly cleaned between uses, bacteria from one food item can easily transfer to another. This kind of cross-contamination is one of the most common ways germs spread in restaurant settings.
The study from the Journal of Environmental Health specifically pointed to cutting tools as a potential source of contamination. Traces of bacteria commonly found on raw meat and poultry showed up on lemon slices. That means somewhere along the line, those lemons came into contact with something that had been near raw protein. Whether it happened on a cutting board or through a shared knife, the result is the same. Germs end up on the fruit that ends up in your glass.
Lemons sit out in open containers for hours
At most restaurants, lemons are sliced in advance during prep time. Then they get placed into open containers and left sitting behind the bar or at a server station for the entire shift. Sometimes they sit there even longer. Reddit users who work in restaurants have mentioned that lemons aren’t always thrown out at the end of the night. Some places keep them overnight and use them again the next day, which gives bacteria even more time to multiply.
Even at places that do toss them daily, those open containers are a problem. They’re exposed to the air, to passing hands, and to whatever else is happening in the bar area. Some restaurants have started storing sliced lemons in sealed jars, which helps keep them fresher and more protected. But that’s far from the standard. Most places still use basic open trays, meaning your lemon wedge has been sitting exposed for who knows how long before it landed in your water.
Fancy restaurants aren’t immune to this problem
It’s tempting to assume that higher-end restaurants have stricter hygiene rules. And in many cases, they do have better kitchen practices. But the lemon situation is pretty universal. The Journal of Environmental Health study sampled lemons from 21 different restaurants, and the contamination was widespread across all types of locations. Whether it’s a dive bar or an upscale steakhouse, lemon water carries the same risk because the same basic prep methods apply almost everywhere.
The core issue isn’t about how nice the restaurant is. It’s about how lemons are categorized. They’re seen as a garnish, not as food that needs careful handling. That mental distinction is what leads to shortcuts in cleaning, storage, and handling. Until restaurants start treating lemons with the same care they give to salad greens or raw proteins, the problem isn’t going away. A higher price tag on your meal doesn’t guarantee a cleaner lemon in your glass.
Other garnishes and surfaces are just as bad
Lemons get most of the attention in these studies, but they’re not alone. Limes, cherries, and other drink garnishes face the exact same handling issues. They’re prepped in the same area, stored in the same types of containers, and grabbed by the same hands. If the lemons are carrying bacteria, there’s a good chance the limes next to them are too. Menus, salt shakers, pepper grinders, and ketchup bottles are also covered in germs.
This doesn’t mean you should panic every time you eat out. But it does put things in perspective. The little extras that seem harmless—the garnish, the condiment bottle, the plastic menu—are often touched by more people and cleaned less often than your actual plate. Lemons just happen to be the one garnish that goes directly into your drink and soaks there. That extended contact time is what makes them stand out as a bigger concern than, say, a menu you hold for two minutes.
Simple alternatives that keep the lemon taste
If you really love lemon in your water, you don’t have to give it up entirely. One option is to ask for the wedge on the side, squeeze just the juice into your drink, and skip dropping the whole slice in. That way, the rind—where most of the bacteria lives—never touches your water. It’s not a perfect fix, since the flesh can carry bacteria too, but it reduces your contact with the dirtiest part of the fruit significantly.
An even simpler solution is to bring your own. Products like True Lemon packets are small, portable, and dissolve right into water. They’re made from crystallized lemon and give you the same taste without any of the risk. You can also grab a small ReaLemon juice bottle that fits in a pocket or purse. Either option keeps you in control of what’s actually going into your drink, and you’ll never have to wonder whose hands were on your garnish.
Restaurant lemon wedges may look clean, but research tells a different story. From unwashed rinds and bare-hand handling to cross-contaminated knives and open storage containers, there are too many ways for germs to hitch a ride into your glass. The good news is that it’s easy to sidestep the whole issue. Next time a server asks if you’d like lemon with your water, a simple “no thanks” might be the smartest thing you say all meal.
