A rising number of people drink their coffee on their way to work (or “to go”), causing an increased usage of single-use mugs. Efforts to lower this number by using multi-use mugs are often not supported by coffee shops due to doubts about food safety. The data collected in this study, show that the number detected in multi-use mugs can be neglected compared to the number of microorganisms found in freshly prepared coffee. The bacteria found were inter alia part of the human skin flora (e.g., Staphylococcus epidermidis), ubiquitous bacteria as Acinetobacter johnsonii, water bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa and food spoiling bacteria as Bacillus cereus as well as different Enterobacteriaceae.
Furthermore, our data suggest that a coffee output temperature of 68°C or higher significantly reduces the number of microorganisms present in the brewed beverage. These findings do not only help to enhance food safety, but can at the same time reduce the number of single-use mugs as the microbiological risk associated with multi-use mugs seems to be overestimated.
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Journal of Bioprocessing & Biotechniques received 3351 citations as per Google Scholar report
