One day at work I noticed a collegue of mine would wash her can of soda under the faucett before she would open it and drink from it. I asked her why she did this to which she replied that a family member worked in a warehouse that housed cans of beer (or whatever) and that rats and rodents would crawl over these cans and would contaminate them with urine and fecal matter.
I know that the FDA allows for some contamination IN the food but I was wondering if the same rules apply for this?
Is my soda-pop can contaminated on the outside of the lip cover? Have I been duped into drinking volumes of rat-piss Please tell me that is this another Urban Legend!!
[Moderator Hat ON]
This should probably be in General Questions. I’m moving it.
[Moderator Hat OFF]
Although I have no proof, I’d say it’s largely an urban legend. I did see one of those mass e-mails a couple of years back about someone who supposedly got really sick after drinking from a can.
I myself always drink straight from the can, and I’m still alive. I guess all that rat pee is good for you…
Well, there is this urban legend.
Although there’s a chance that there’s something bad on the outside top of a soda can I don’t think that’s necessarilly the case. A few points to keep in mind:
-
I’ve seen cans delivered to our vending machine at work and they are sealed in plastic by someone before they get put in the machine.
-
If there was a huge health risk we would have heard about it by now and lawsuits would have been filed.
-
Hi Opel
When I was a kid I would wipe the top of my soda can with my shirt before I opened it, but at some point realized that my shirt is probably no cleaner than the can itself.
Unless they get contaminated at the factory before packing (pretty unlikely) or they are in an opened pack hanging around in a warehouse somewhere, I would have thought that the plastic wrap on the crates is pretty good protection.
Now, the same may not be true of cans from the top shelf in a large supermarket; there are nearly always sparrows or finches living free inside very large stores.
I spent part of 1988 and '90 working for a temp agency, one of my assignments was the Coca-Cola warehouse on Seminary Road. It was menial labor, sorting the cans by product and removing the damaged ones. Coke and the others probably still sort out the damaged cans, in which case there is an excellent chance of those cans being uncovered for a few days.
Of course, I meant all of the cans.
On the other hand, if they’re not sealed in plastic or somesuch, all manner of grime can and does get on there. It’s probably not the bottler’s fault, but it’s something to look out for.
Rat Urine is besides the point. Washing the can before you drink it would probably just be considered “safe.” Whether or not the FDA regulated rats in the plants, I bet it would be hard to regulate the shipping, loading, distribution of those cans. Who knows if the coke guy sneezed right before touching a can, of if some kid decided to urinate on the coke machine.
Thats my 2 cents.
“eschew obfuscation.”