Like many people, Carl Behnke regularly totes a water bottle around throughout his day to make sure he stays hydrated. From the office to the gym and back home again, Behnke is rarely without it. But Behnke is also an associate professor in the school of hospitality and tourism management at Purdue University, and when he discovered a “biofilm” on the inside of his water bottle while cleaning it, it got his wheels turning. “I realized I probably wasn’t as diligent about cleaning my water bottle as I should be,” he explains. “And that made me curious: If someone who knows about food safety isn’t diligent, what about everyone else?”
That question led to a study, conducted by Behnke and a cohort of academics and scientists, into how reusable-bottle contamination levels are affected by usage and cleaning behaviors. If you’re regularly drinking water from a reusable bottle, their findings might prompt you to reconsider your own water-bottle-handling practices.
