Soda fountain machines spewing out bacteria: Study

The researchers from Hollins University, in Roanoke, Virginia, tested beverages for microbial contamination. They found many beverages contaminated with bacteria.

To conduct the study, Godard, lead author of the study, and his colleagues obtained 90 beverages of three types--sugar sodas, diet sodas and water--from restaurants in an area near Roanoke. They analyzed both self service and personnel-dispensed soda fountains.

The researchers found that 48 percent of the beverages were contaminated with coliform bacteria, 11 percent had Escherichia coli, and more than 17 percent contained Chryseobacterium meningosepticum.

Suspected source of contamination
Godard ruled out the possibility of contamination of water supply as the tap water and ice did not test positive for bacteria.

Though the researchers are not sure what caused the contamination, they suspect the bacteria got inside the machines while dispensing beverages with unclean hands or though wet rages used to clean the machines.

Few people in the fast-food outlet have been observed touching the nozzles of the soda fountain machines. Though restaurants reported cleaning the nozzles, very few said they rinsed the plastic tubing within the machines on a daily basis.

Researchers suspect that this could have resulted in the growth and colonization of bacteria with the machines.

"We haven't done the work to really identify those potential sources and how these bacteria get established," Godard stated.

Beverages below drinking water standards for contamination
As per the findings, majority of the beverages tested were below the drinking water standards.

According to the drinking-water regulations set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the beverages should not test positive for E. coli.

So far, no case of food-borne illness has been reported in the area, but presence of bacteria in the beverages could prove dangerous as most of the identified bacteria showed resistance to one or more of the 11 antibiotics tested.

The presence of fecal coliform bacteria in water is not harmful, but this may indicate possible pathogens contamination, leading to problems like ear infections, dysentery, typhoid fever, viral and bacterial gastroenteritis, and hepatitis A.

Even E.coli strains are considered harmless but some can cause food poisoning, bad stomach cramps, belly pain, urinary tract infections, pneumonia etc.

Chryseobacterium meningosepticum affects newborns and adults with weak immune system and it leads to problems like pneumonia, meningitis, cellulites, and abdominal infections among others.