Soda Fountain Machines Spew Bacteria Too

While this may be a revelation to many at Aqua Star International this is no surprise.

In a scientific study conducted by microbiologists from the University of Arizona several years ago, researchers collected and tested used filters from our retail water vending machines as a means of duplicating municipal water quality from the tap water recipient's perspective to see how it matched up to water quality reported from the processing/distribution points.

Their findings? Exactly the same as the researchers cited in this article.

clipped from www.nbcwashington.com The study, published in the International Journal of Food Microbiology, looked at "microbial populations" in soda dispensed from 30 beverage fountain machines (both self-service and staff-operated) in restaurants and cafeterias and found coliform bacteria in nearly half of the samples, plus other “opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms” (translation: icky stuff), according to the Smithsonian Magazine's blog.