The following is a transcript of a report by Team 4 investigator Paul Van Osdol that first aired July 7, 2008, on WTAE Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m.

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A Team 4 investigation finds some local ice cream shops are serving up too much bacteria in their cones.

Dozens of local shops and restaurants have gotten warning letters from the state after tests found ice cream loaded with coliform bacteria.

Team 4's Paul Van Osdol got the test results and said some of these tests showed coliform bacteria levels more than 10 times the state limit. That same bacteria commonly contains E. coli.

There's no indication any dangerous strain of E. coli was found in these tests, but experts say too much of the less-toxic bacteria can still make you sick.

The state requires monthly bacteria tests for all ice cream coming from soft-serve machines. Two failing inspections in four months gets a warning letter and a state inspection that could lead to fines.

Team 4 found the state has sent out 40 warning letters to restaurants and ice cream parlors in Allegheny County since January 2007, and some of those places were later fined for failing more inspections.

The Dairy Queen at the Mall at Robinson paid a $100 fine last November, and Scally's Golf Center in Moon paid a $50 fine last August.

Since being fined, Scally's has had no further warnings or citations, but the Robinson Mall Dairy Queen did get another warning just last month.

A spokesperson for that Dairy Queen franchise tells me, "We have put every single measure possible into place. Hopefully, we will start doing this right."

Other warning letters went to national chains, as well as local mom-and-pop stores.

In most cases, the tests found coliform bacteria levels more than 10 times the maximum allowed under state law.

"You could basically have the possibility of giving the customers, depending on their own health, they could get diarrhea. They surely could," said Simon Schutzman, of the state Department of Agriculture.

It's unclear whether that's happened locally. Even though inspections are posted on the agriculture department's Web site, customers we talked to were not aware their favorite ice cream shop had failed bacteria tests.

Van Osdol: "What's your concern about having the high bacteria count?"

Ebony Williams, Wilkinsburg: "That my child might get something. She might get sick. Stomach virus or anything like that. I wouldn't want to feed that to my child and I wouldn't want to feed that to anyone else's kid."

In February, the Sonic drive-in in Tarentum was cited for failing to clean its soft-serve machine daily as required by law. The inspection came after two months in a row of tests showing high bacteria -- coliform levels more than 15 times the state maximum.

Van Osdol: "Was it a concern when you saw some of the test results showing the high coliform levels, the high bacteria levels?"

Steve Walzer, Sonic general manager: "Everything's always a concern. We always work every day to get everything running the way it's supposed to be."

The Dairy Queen on Library Road in Bethel Park got two warning letters last year after having high bacteria levels in four monthly tests.

Franchise owner Mary Kay Allen says she tries her best to keep the machines clean.

Allen: "Human nature. You make mistakes. Kids sometimes, even ourselves, we're not as careful as we should be about changing bags, things like that."

Records show no further warnings were sent to Sonic or the Library Road Dairy Queen.

Inspectors say the best way to prevent bacteria is to clean these soft serve machines every day as the law requires. That means literally taking them apart, which can take several hours.

We followed state inspector Schutzman as he scoped out Charlie's Ice Cream in Monroeville.

Schutzman: "You have a thermometer in your cooler?"

Employee: "Yes, I do."

He also checks the temperature inside the soft serve machine.

Schutzman: "Right now, we're showing, like, 44 (degrees)."

And there's more.

Schutzman: "Can you show me your cleaning brushes?>

Charlie's gets a passing grade. Schutzman would like to see more places like it.

Schutzman: "Everybody's going to have a bad lab test sooner or later, but we want to make sure those are few and far between."

As we said, the state is checking only soft-serve machines at these stores. Other ice cream is tested at the plants where it is produced.

Nearly all the ice cream parlors that failed inspections did get back into compliance with the state.

A spokesman for Sonic says that the Tarentum franchise "worked promptly to correct the deficiency identified at the drive-in."

If you'd like to check up on your favorite ice cream parlor, use the Food Establishment Inspection Search on the Department of Agriculture's Web site.

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