Restaurant health inspectors protect us from the unsanitary evils that lurk in the kitchens and bathrooms of food establishments, right?
Yes, to an extent.
But there's a lot about the restaurant industry that we don't know. Even though the restaurant might look spotless from top to bottom, there are almost always secret spots of grime -- and inspectors aren't there every day of the year.
Take, for example, the standard soda fountain found at most restaurants and movie theaters. Seems safe to drink out of right? Well, let's just have a look inside one of them, shall we?
See anything suspicious? Try looking in the far corners. Can you spot the grime?
Yep, that is stray syrup and various other "materials" that can accumulate in the corners of soda fountains if they're not cleaned regularly.
Even more disturbing is perhaps the fact that this kind of buildup can occur in as little as a week. Not very hygienic, I know.
But while we're on the subject, can we talk about regular water fountains for a moment? They're equally horrifying...
Several studies in the past ten years have found that public drinking fountains actually contain disturbingly high levels of harmful bacteria. Way more bacteria, in fact, than public toilets. Yeah, let that one sink in...
So, pretty much nothing is safe to drink out of or be served from. I guess we'll all just have to go back to drinking rainwater. That seems like the safest thing right now...
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