What do you think the worst problem to crop up from your restaurant fountain soda could be? Gas? Diabetes? I worked a few years in food service and I remember an incident in which a customer claimed that our soda fountain darn near asphyxiated him. I didn't wait on this customer, but my fellow server fetched the requested carbonated beverage for this person and moments later was summoned to his table. The soda fountain nozzle had fallen into his drink and, unfortunately, my fellow (absent-minded) server had the misfortune of having the customer discover the mishap.
The customer was quite upset, claiming he could have been killed if he had swallowed or choked on it. Now, a few things came to my mind at this claim:
1. Could a person really swallow a soda fountain nozzle?
2. For those who have never dealt closely with a soda fountain nozzle, these things are about 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter.
3. The customer in question wasn't so large that I could imagine a nozzle getting down his throat.
I digress. What I'm getting at here is that for some people, choking is a real and probable hazard of drinking a fountain soda.
I am here to tell you that there is yet another danger lurking in that cold glass of sweet refreshment.
POOP.
Yes. I screamed, too, when I first made this discovery. That's what I said, and those of you who have read my other blog are thinking that yours truly has some kind of poop fixation (it happens when you are the parent of multiple toddlers). This is for real.
See this CNN article from a couple of weeks ago. http://http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/08/soda.fountain.bacteria/index.html?iref=allsearch
According to a Virginia university research study of area restaurants, (both do-it-yourself sodas and employee-access-only sodas) over half of the samples were contaminated with coliform bacteria, e. coli, or Chryseobacterium meningosepticum. To you or me, who are not mad scientists (like my bro-in-law who has an unnatural relationship with hemoglobin or my good friend Yuriko who thinks lab rats are super "cute") that means that someone got poop in the soda.
And don't think that you're safe if you don't order the soda. The water also comes from the same soda fountain.
This article goes on to state that the same study also found that the soda also fell below basic drinking water standards.
The study didn't go into how the poop got in the soda, and the truth is, the study used relatively small subject matter. (90 beverages from 30 area restaurants, all in one city in Virginia) So here are my thoughts on this issue:
1. Does Virginia have a hygeine problem? I hope that is the case, because I would hate for Denver to have this same issue...
2. How did the poop get there?
3. I have gotten sick after having eaten at various restaurants, and I always assumed it was the food. Now I wonder...was it the poop in my soda?
4. I recently discovered a pho restaurant near my home and I was delighted to see that they do not serve fountain sodas--all sodas come in a can. (Pho Saigon on Quebec and County Line)
5. I don't think the restaurant where I worked had the poop problem. We actually removed the nozzles and washed them regularly in the super-duper sanitary dishwasher. Thank goodness!
Jake just walked by and stated that some things you really just don't want to know. I disagree. Are we not all better people for knowing now that someone got poop in your soda?
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