Featured Image Credit: Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images
Topics: Health, Food and Drink
Jess Hardiman
Self-serve drinks dispensers are a modern mainstay of eating out, whether it’s your workplace cafeteria or a restaurant chain that boldly trusts its customers to take the DIY route.
But while they may remove a few extra steps when it comes to service, there’s one huge downside that proves they might not be quite as convenient after all.
Back in 2023, scientists in California found that 40 percent of water samples from fast food soda fountains had coliforms present – a red flag sign of contamination.
Thomas Hile, a researcher affiliated with Loma Linda and the lead author of the study – which was published in the journal Drinking Water – told USA Today: “We cannot say that soda fountain contamination is only in the eastern Coachella Valley.
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“It’s a general problem that I believe is kind of overlooked.”
Indeed, one fast food worker recently realised just how grim they can be, having taken a photo of one machine mid-clean.
Taking to Reddit's 'Moldly Interesting' (geddit!?) feed, they wrote: "Several pounds of pure slime mold from the soda machine drain pipes at my stupid fast food job. The most disgusting thing I've seen let alone had to clean."
Needless to say, many were equally 'horrified', with one asking: "What the f**k?"
"Bro f**k no," another said. "I'd quit on the spot lol. That s**t is a health hazard."
Someone else commented: "This is why I don’t touch those soda fountains. There’s this guy on IG who shows how moldy the ice is too and it’s disgusting."
A fourth added: "Sugar snake - the worst parts of those awful fountain machines. I’m horrified and impressed!"
One said it was 'giving cordyceps', and another said it looked 'horrifyingly organic', while one other said: "Woah buddy that’s crazy! I don’t think you had the PPE required to clean that safely."
The fast food worker also added in a comment that there was even one thing worse than the smell: "The sound of a vacuum sucking it up like a kid eating jello."
VOM.
Thankfully, while the machines may seem a little daunting based on that photo, there are ways to clean them and other similar equipment.
One hospitality worker suggested: "I work at a bar but we have an electric kettle that we use to pour down drains at least every other night. Really helps."
Another warned: "Remember to pour sanitizer down the drains of your soda machines before you close fellow wagies."