Listen up guys, this is important.
Reusable coffee cups are part and parcel of many of our daily lives, so news that they could pose a potential threat to our health is something to take very seriously.
With most of us lugging them about in our bags, it can be pretty easy to forget to wash them up after use, and to instead keep using them and using them and using them, without as much as a wipe.
Now Public Health England have made an important statement about the cups that lots of us have swapped to following Government plans for a 25p ‘latte tax’ on disposables.
https://twitter.com/sophieraworth/status/951043757385842688
Nick Phin, deputy director for national infection service, at PHE, told the Telegraph: “As with regular cups and glasses, wash and clean reusable cups thoroughly after every use.”
He went on to recommend putting water in the cup with the lid on and shaking it, but added they shouldn’t pose no danger so long as people applied basic food hygiene standards and ‘common sense’.
A spokesman at the Food Standards Agency also said customer drinking from reusable cups should “ensure they are cleaned properly after every use and replaced as necessary”.
Paul Morris, director at packaging hygiene firm AddMaster, said: “Consumers need to be aware that if a product is used more than once, there is a potential health risk if the drinking vessel has not been cleaned properly.
“This is particularly important with coffee products, where diary and sugar are present, as this is an ideal breading ground for potential dangerous bacteria.
“If the cup is dirty hot water alone is not good enough – you need detergent too – and if it’s OK for your hands its too cool to kill bacteria. The main danger will be from the mouthpiece which will have hard to reach areas that bacteria could grow in, so yes some would be better than others.”
So in summary: don’t be a greb and it should be fine.
