Dr. Don and Professor Ben talk about the risks of licking an ice sculpture Dr. Don - not risky ?? Professor Ben - not risky ?? Veronica Bryant (@NoroNerd) / Twitter Mary Kathrynn (@marydidyaknow) / Twitter Microbiological quality of ice used to refrigerate foods - ScienceDirect Ice as a vehicle for diarrheagenic Escherichia coli - ScienceDirect Ice sculpture - Wikipedia Multi-pathogen waterborne disease outbreak associated with a dinner cruise on Lake Michigan - PubMed Detection of Norovirus in Saliva Samples from Acute Gastroenteritis Cases and Asymptomatic Subjects: Association with Age and Higher Shedding in Stool - PubMed From David W. Tharp, Executive Director, International Association for Food Protection: I'm not sure when this "tradition" began, but I'm fairly certain that there was an ice sculpture at my first meeting in 1993.  From memory, Charlie Felix was the liaison to the Packaged Ice Association (now International Packaged Ice Association).  Charlie worked from 1966 to 1985 for the Foodservice and Packaging Institute (per his LinkedIn profile).  He became a publisher and consultant after 1985 and was active in IAFP through 2012.