Water bottles can be breeding grounds for bacteria. Here’s how to clean them.
Like many others, Carl Behnke regularly carries a water bottle with him throughout the day to ensure he stays hydrated. hydrated. From the office to the gym to home, Behnke rarely goes without it. But Behnke is also an associate professor in Purdue University’s department of hospitality and tourism management, and when he discovered a “biofilm” inside his water bottle while washing it, it got him thinking. “I realized that maybe I wasn’t washing my water bottle as diligently as I should have,” he explains. “And that got me curious: If one person who knows about food safety isn’t diligent, what about everyone else?”
That question leads to a learn, by Behnke and a team of academics and scientists, on how the contamination levels of reusable bottles are affected by usage and cleaning behavior. If you regularly drink water from a reusable bottle, their findings may make you reconsider how you dispose of your water bottles.
Change your habits
While carrying a reusable water bottle around all day is good for your health—and good for environment—neglecting to take care of it can have some negative consequences. “Do you do the dishes after dinner?” Behnke asks. “Yes. But with water bottles, we often carry them around and don’t clean them properly.”
You may wash your water bottle, but if you don’t wash it as often as you should, you’d be surprised at what can grow on the surface and inside. The study included two surveys filled out by water bottle users. The first set of questions focused on the type and age of the bottle they used, what they put in it (Water, energy drinketc.) and frequency of use. The second part focuses on hygiene behaviors, from method to frequency.
Basically, Behnke says, using a regular water bottle has all the ingredients to promote bacterial growth: moisture, contamination, and often warm temperatures. Yuriko Fukuta, MD, associate professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine, agrees. “We’re constantly touching water bottles with our mouths and hands, so it’s easy to transfer bacteria to them, and then the bacteria will grow,” she says. “In some cases, that can make you sick, especially if you have a weaker immune system.”
Fukuta thinks the bacteria could include staphylococcus or streptococcus. And here’s what the team found: “More than 20 percent of our samples had coliform bacteria, which are fecal matter,” Behnke says.
Proper care and cleaning of water tanks
If all that bacteria makes you want to give your water bottle a quick treatment, there are a few dos and don’ts you need to follow:
- Use only water in your bottle to reduce bacterial growth. Energy drinks, teas or other flour and supplements only increase the growth of bacteria.
- Keep your water bottle away from places that might get hot. “Don’t leave it in your car and drink from it,” Fukuta says. “Warm temperatures and time will speed up the growth of bacteria.”
- Behnke recommends rinsing after each day of use.
- Wash the bottle once a week, preferably by hand with a bottle brush. When finished, place the bottle upside down on a drying rack to dry completely—don’t store it wet.
- Avoid sharing your water bottle with anyone else. “If it’s your saliva and it’s just water, it’s not a big deal,” says Behnke. “But if you share, you’re introducing other contaminants.”
The Best Water Bottle to Minimize Bacteria Growth
According to Fukuta, the best options are bottles with wide mouths that are easy to clean and dry, as well as bottles with built-in straws so you can’t reach in if possible.
If your goal is to keep your water bottle from becoming a breeding ground for bacteria, the simplest approach is Behnke’s, which he changed after conducting his research. He says, “I wash my bottle once a day” and “wash it once a week, using a good detergent, a bottle brush, and a spray bottle.” Clorox bleach.”
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