I’d stay away from the touch screen menu kiosks, as well.
I can believe it. Long ago I worked in a McDonald’s, and I know what it takes to clean a soda dispenser properly. I can guarantee that almost no convenience-store employees do this, and I’d bet that few restaurant employees do either. I won’t touch a fountain drink from any convenience store.
Opportunistic killers abound. And they ain’t all bacteria.
Thankfully, the sodas from the dispensers are mostly HFCS based. A very easy pass.
Just don’t eat there. Much easier. The employees making the food or drinks should wear gloves, and headgear. The people handling the cash ( Cash got lots of stuff on it, including fecal matter) should wear gloves or wash their hands often.
I used to get food poisoning about every 2 years cause I went to lots of fast food joints. Stopped goin’ there last 8 years.(except for 1 or 2 well known(to me) ones)...no food poisoning since.
Gotta watch the staff...if there are only teenagers in there and they’re laughing and having a good time...ok to get outta’ there.
And those bathroom air dryers. Yeow.
A couple of years ago, mid-Covid, I was at a local hamburger joint and a mom passively watched her 8 year old stand in front the soda fountains and cough directly at them.
I opted for a bottled drink and have avoided fountains since.
Its on the insides of the hoses between the soda canisters / water lines and dispensers. No one cleans them regularly, much less replaces the hoses regularly, to avoid this.
Same kind of issue with dentist office water hose lines.
A lady I knew ran a crew that cleaned soda machines. She never got a drink from one, ever. Even hospital ones were filthy.
Eeeeewww.
I am sure the teenage employees are cleaning the equipment as well as they do their rooms at home..... 🤢