It is best to finish the drink within one hour, Professor Zheng Zhengyong reminds.
Professor Zheng Zhengyong pointed out at a Consumers' Foundation press conference a few years ago that drinks left at room temperature for too long will breed even more bacteria, and if you cannot finish them within 1 hour, it is best to throw them away. However, for office workers, buying a cold drink at noon every day and sipping it slowly at the office is the way to perk up every afternoon. For this reason, Greenvines specifically interviewed Professor Zheng at the time for his views and advice on drinks:
"Are you trying to get fat?"
As soon as he heard us ask about drinks, Professor Zheng immediately pointed out that drinks in Taiwan, China are generally too sweet in order to cater to consumer tastes. Take pearl milk tea as an example: the tapioca pearls themselves already contain sugar, so even without added sugar they taste sweet. He also shook his head and said that many young women in Taiwan, China like to lose weight by skipping regular meals, yet often cannot resist the temptation of a cup of extra-large full-sugar pearl milk tea with no ice, which is not very healthy and also means too high a calorie intake. Therefore, Professor Zheng advised that drinks should still be limited in daily life.
"E. coli doubles in twenty minutes, and in three hours it becomes five hundred times as much"
Why is the term E. coli so commonly heard? Professor Zheng pointed out that E. coli is one of many bacteria and is also a relatively easy indicator to measure. Under conditions with nutrients - carbohydrates and protein (nitrogen source) - it reproduces very quickly, doubling every twenty minutes. When the sanitary environment is poor, drinks are easily contaminated by bacteria during handling, which is harmful to human health. He advised that if you really must buy them, first, look for a shop that pays attention to hygiene, and second, generally cold drinks are best finished within one hour.
"Hot drinks are less of a problem, warm drinks require special care"
Because bacteria are very afraid of heat, as long as a drink has been boiled, most bacteria will be killed, which is why hot drinks are relatively safe. However, lukewarm drinks may instead become the ideal breeding ground for bacteria, so special attention must be paid to them.
The original October 2010 news text and image are cited as follows:
50% of extra-large drinks exceed E. coli limits
[Report by Xiao Rujun, Taiwan Awakening News] Extra-large drinks also place an extra-large burden on health! The Consumers' Foundation sampled commercially sold "extra-large drinks" and found that 1 had excessive bacterial count and 8 exceeded E. coli limits, which can easily cause gastroenteritis. The Consumers' Foundation also urged consumers to finish them as soon as possible or else throw them away rather than let bacteria breed. The Consumers' Foundation further found that the sugar content of extra-large drinks exceeds the recommended intake and is also harmful to health.
The extra-large drinks commonly seen on the roadside these days are not expensive; 25 yuan can buy 1000 cc. The Consumers' Foundation tested 15 extra-large drinks for whether they contained "coumarin," "bacteria," "E. coli group," and "preservatives," and found that the "bacteria" in "A-Hao-Shen Old-Time Black Tea Ice" did not meet standards, and that 8 others had excessive "E. coli group." The Consumers' Foundation urged shops to always pay attention to the temperature of refrigerators and freezers, and to regularly clean water purification equipment as well as ladles and any containers. Staff themselves should avoid touching drink ingredients or equipment after handling banknotes or rags. Coumarin is a natural flavoring, and only a content exceeding 2 mg per kilogram counts as excessive.
You Kaixiong said that, fortunately, none of these 15 drinks tested positive for coumarin, and all preservatives also met regulations. In addition, bacteria easily breed in water and ice, and this occurs if shops do not pay attention to environmental hygiene. Consumers' Foundation chairman Xie Tianren pointed out that shops selling extra-large black tea ice mostly operate by "pushcart," with high mobility, and in an environment exposed to wind and sun, bacteria are even more likely to grow. The "E. coli group" can infect consumers because of unclean tableware as well as unhygienic handling by workers and storage conditions. The hygiene standards for beverages clearly specify that E. coli per milliliter should be below 10. In this test, as many as 8 exceeded the limit, namely "Laichun Black Tea Ice," "Hongzai Biao Black Tea Ice," "Cha Shier Rui Qu," "Wu Family Black Tea Ice," "Black Tea House," "Hui Shang Yin," "Cai Yuanyi Black Tea," and "A-Hao-Shen Old-Time Black Tea Ice."
Regarding storage time, consumers need to spend more time finishing extra-large drinks. Consumers' Foundation food committee director Zheng Zhengyong said that drinks left at room temperature for too long will breed even more bacteria, and if you cannot finish them within 1 hour, it is best to throw them away. Regarding sugar testing, the Consumers' Foundation further found that under the premise of "normal sugar, normal ice," 15 drinks exceeded the daily recommended sugar amount by nearly double. Consumers' Report publisher You Kaixiong said that adults mostly automatically ask for reduced sugar, but children almost never ask, and extra-large drinks are cheap and easily attract children to buy them. Therefore, the Consumers' Foundation advised that consumers should avoid drinking beverages to quench thirst; drinking water is still the way to health.
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