Soda fountains could be squirting out fecal bacteria, study finds
All right, two burgers with a side of fries coming up ... would you like a large fecally contaminated soda with that?
Like it or not, that's what you may be drinking, says a study published in the January print edition of the International Journal of Food Microbiology. The study looked at 90 beverages from 30 soda fountains in Virginia. A follow-up study took a look at the microbes they found in 27 drinks (including water). Researchers found that 48% of the drinks were harboring "coliform" bacteria -- which means they could contain fecal matter.
"More than 11% of the beverages analyzed contained Escherichia coli and over 17% contained Chryseobacterium meningosepticum," according to the abstract. "Other opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms isolated from the beverages included species of Klebsiella, Staphylococcus, Stenotrophomonas, Candida, and Serratia."
Yech. That's quite a lineup. Even though the bacteria weren't strong enough to wreak havoc on most people's systems, the fact that they can and do live in soda fountains (and the fact that no one seems to know exactly how they got there, including the study authors) -- is a scary thought indeed.
This isn’t the first stomach-turning study to come out regarding the restaurant industry; as the FDA has pointed out, retail food is rife with potentially biohazardous situations. Also, carbonated beverages are not that good for you anyway. Then again, the type of restaurant where you'd typically be getting a drink from a soda fountain might not be especially healthful either.
-- Amina Khan
Photo credit: Los Angeles Times
"Cloroform" backteria?
Is this maybe something it has.. is it proverbail cholorofrom bacteria or is the author just a fan of unnecessary quotes...
Posted by: Bearfoot | January 08, 2010 at 06:45 PM
What do you expect from the lazy grubs who don't wash their hands properly.
Straight from the toilet to you!
Posted by: BB from Australia | January 08, 2010 at 07:08 PM
No more stopping for a soda for me... I'm a germ phobe...
Posted by: Maggie Brown | January 08, 2010 at 09:38 PM
Anyone here watch Mythbusters? It's practically everywhere and pretty much unavoidable.
Posted by: Lemon | January 09, 2010 at 11:47 PM
There are no laws in CA on the books that state that they have to wear gloves. My guess is that people are touching the soda fountains, Children for example put their hand everywhere and are not that skill at washing hands.
Posted by: C.B | January 10, 2010 at 08:27 AM
I recently noticed that there's a drink-pouring "robot" at the drive-thru of a local McDonald's restaurant. As the clerk goes to fetch the food, the drink-making machine squirts out ice and drink into the appropriate sized cup and sends it around a conveyor belts for the clerk to pick up when she hands over the meal. I thought it was stupid at the time, but maybe not such a bad idea.
Posted by: NaturesWonders | January 10, 2010 at 04:31 PM
"The dose makes the poison." It's not just that coliform bacteria were 'detected' in fountain drinks; it's that the bacteria were found in quantities that exceeded EPA safe drinking water standards (i.e. > 500 CFU/ml) in about 20% of the drinks sampled.
Though most restaurants clean the nozzles nightly, the tubing inside the machines is usually NEVER cleaned (despite the manufacturers' recommendations for periodic flushing). That's the likely source of the bacteria. Which doesn't make it any less disgusting.
Posted by: Wayne B. | January 10, 2010 at 05:41 PM
I think deep down we all know these germs are present, but just to see it in print and read it makes our stomachs lurch a little. Of course, this comes on the tail of my family returning late last night from a trip and stopping at one of the fast-food places...ugh. Bottled water, here we come.
Interesting post. Thank you.
Posted by: storytellerdoc | January 11, 2010 at 05:30 AM
Gross!!!
Posted by: Joe Hadfield | January 11, 2010 at 07:40 AM
Whoop - deee - dooo. Sorry, I've been drinking soda pretty much my whole life from various fountain drink machines across the US. As far as I know - I have never been made sick by one. Germs are EVERYWHERE, get used to it. We attempt to make everything safe and clean - but all we do is make these little bugs in Super Bugs.
It's ok to injest germs sometimes - believe it or not, but the 1000's of years of evolution has allowed our bodies to destroy these little buggers. Don't worry about the little things.
Posted by: Kevin | January 11, 2010 at 08:32 AM
Know how I eliminate fecal matter from my soda? I don't drink soda! Haven't had a drink of that nasty, carbonated sugar water in decades. Who needs it? Heck, they're gonna start taxing it in California any day, so just stop drinking soda now. No poop, no taxes. Gotta lova H2O.
Posted by: David | January 11, 2010 at 10:43 AM
Yes and you shouldn't eat dirt either. Honestly we've become a society of germaphobes. I've had drinks from fountains all of my life and haven't died yet. We weren't meant to live in a vacuum.
Posted by: Chuck | January 12, 2010 at 07:41 AM
wether it has bacteria or not, soda has NO NUTRITIONAL BENEFIT at all, so why bother drinking it anyways, its just carbonated water with tons of sugar and very acidic substances, nothing natural about them, I haven't had soda in ages, and when you try it after is tastes disgusting unless you're used to them. DRINK MORE WATER, plain and simple.
Posted by: gustrainer | January 12, 2010 at 10:22 AM
It's in the water. L.A. water that is.
Posted by: louie_dog | January 12, 2010 at 11:20 AM