I love bottled drinks a lot and I have developed a very easy
way of opening the corked ones with speed. I have even become the expert
amongst my colleagues with referral all the time to help them open their drinks
and I’ve been thinking of charging them some small fee for this skill of mine. Much
more than the special teeth opening of the metallic cap of the bottle is that
part where I turn the bottle up and gulp the chilled content to the delight of
my insatiable thirst for drinks without any caution. Oh yeah, like in that
recent advert where one fine babe like that offered this handsome dude another
bottle when he finished the first with half of the skill I have! Why can’t they
just put me there and see skill in action, maybe I’ll get the whole factory and more.
Ok one of those days when I was about getting to the bliss
of turning the bottle over, my friend with me started with caution saying I should
have used a straw instead of turning over the chilled bottle as he said that
will be more appropriate and gentlemanly. Well, growing up, I didn’t like using
straw for drinks because the drink will finish faster and you won’t even feel
you have enjoyed it at all. When I understood food safety however, I don’t use
the straw for a different reason and let me tell you about it.
The straw is a good way of being “tush” when taking your
drinks but the question is, is it safe to use? After opening a straw, how is it
kept? Is it free from germs and dusts? Is it possible that rodents and
cockroaches can have access to the straw you want to use for that chilled drink
while you look “tush”? the truth is that
many food vendors who offer you straw for the drinks you buy from them just
pick it up from where they last dropped it. Usually exposed and handled by anybody
around, your straw might have even fallen out and packed back inside the nylon,
nobody thinks it really matters anyway. You are therefore exposed to whatever
the straw has been in contact with before you transfer it into your mouth.
Have you also considered how people touch the straws when
they want to pick the one for use? It is very difficult to pick just one straw
without having contact with a few others in the process, how sure are you that
he didn’t transfer something pathogenic just through the simple touch and then
you or the small child you carry take it straight into your mouth.
Are the drinks hygienic to drink without a straw? Oh yes
they are supposed to be! If they are properly corked and air tight, they are
safe to drink and you can take more precaution by checking that the seal is not
broken and the drink is not leaking before you open it. This applies to all
packaged drinks except spirits.
So next time you open a bottle, either glass, pet or tetra
pack, you can gulp it my style without getting a straw or we form a gulpy gang
thing after all we have groups for everything in Nigeria now. Meanwhile let me
gulp this lemonade down of course without a straw.
Don’t forget, if you are not sure, just don’t eat it!
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