Along with the “pink slime“, comes this story via The Huffington Post. Their article is just a brief excerpt from The International Journal of Food Microbiology.
…A team of microbiologists from Hollins University found that 48% of sodas tested from the fast food fountains contain coliform bacteria, which is typically fecal in origin. And most bacteria found were antibiotic resistant, as icing on the cake.
And from The IJFM:
Most of the identified bacteria showed resistance to one or more of the 11 antibiotics tested. These findings suggest that soda fountain machines may harbor persistent communities of potentially pathogenic microorganisms which may contribute to episodic gastric distress in the general population and could pose a more significant health risk to immunocompromised individuals.
You can read the whole study here.
Bottled water anyone?
Good thing I don’t drink soda. Hopefully they won’t run the same tests on beer taps.
Don’t you know where those bottles have been?
:)
I’ll stuck with clean fresh Portland tap water, thanks.
Remember there was an ecoli scare/boil water order for westside Portland tap water a month ago.
From what I remember of my HAACP training much of that fecal residue is from the disposable cups. Even a perfectly clean establishment can sometimes not avoid this as there can be pest infestations in the manufacturing plant of these materials and the warehouses that store them as well.
I haven’t had a to go cup of soda since taking that class…
This news is disgusting. This gives me another reason to avoid coke. I think the fountains must be cleaned regularly to prevent bacterial growth.
I’m a little suprised about the finding. During my youth working at a TCBY, we disassembled the soda machine every night and soaked the plastic parts in an industrial cleaner that would kill anything. It took about 2 minutes to take the soda machine a part and put it back together.