Fecal Bacteria Found In Fast Food Soda Fountains

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We hear about food contamination and bacteria sneaking its way into various foods however you wouldn't think soda fountains would be affected!

A team of microbiologists from Hollins University tested soft drink fountains from fast food restaurant and found that 48% of the sodas contained antibiotic resistant coliform bacteria, which is usually fecal in origin.

After testing 90 beverages from 30 soda fountains, the microbiologists published their results in the International Journal of Food Microbiology stating:

...Coliform bacteria was detected in 48% of the beverages and 20% had a heterotrophic plate count greater than 500 cfu/ml. [...] More than 11% of the beverages analyzed contained Escherichia coli [E. Coli] and over 17% contained Chryseobacterium meningosepticum. Other opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms isolated from the beverages included species of Klebsiella, Staphylococcus, Stenotrophomonas, Candida, and Serratia. Most of the identified bacteria showed resistance to one or more of the 11 antibiotics tested.

Tom Laskawy, a blogger for grist.org said that although a recorded outbreak linked to a soda fountain occurred ten years ago, these bacteria could cause sickness on an individual level that can go unreported.
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