Should You Be Cleaning Grocery Store Drink Cans?
What's your go-to canned drink, the pick-me-up for the drive home from the grocery store or after a long day at the office? Everyone has a favorite. From soda and juice to canned cocktails — the invention of aluminum cans has made enjoying our beverages very convenient. But some people say you shouldn't just drink straight out of the can. Instead, you should wash the top of your prebiotic sodas and well-crafted canned cocktails because they're covered in germs.
With summer in full swing, we're all stocking our coolers with cans of our favorite drinks. So, should you clean every can before it goes into the ice for your next backyard barbecue? We turned to chef Will Coleman, author of "From Cart to Kitchen," for some expert advice. He's been brainstorming a new line of canned summer cocktails with On The Rocks and took some time to answer a few questions on how to treat canned drinks from the grocery store.
"I think the extra precautions are always lovely," Coleman said. However, he takes a relaxed approach to how he cleans the outside of canned drinks before cracking them open, scoping it out based on the situation: "It depends on the environment I'm buying it from. If I need to rinse with water, so be it. If I need to take some soap and bleach to do it, I may do it. It depends on where I'm getting it from, but I'm definitely a little more casual with it."
Red flags that might tell you a canned drink from the grocery store needs to be cleaned
Not every canned drink you buy will have layers of germs, dust, and grimy things on it, but some might. Some people go all-out with the soap and bleach method Will Coleman suggested, others just wipe the top off with the edge of their T-shirt. Others use soap and water or antibacterial agents like hand sanitizer or a disinfecting wipe to clean off the lid. Ultimately, choose your cleaning method based on your level of concern about the contaminants on the top of the can.
Coleman himself doesn't always wash drink cans before he opens them up. "Sometimes I give it to my microbiome in my body to keep me covered and protected, but there have been times I bought a soda from a grocery store that I was like, 'This has been tossed around.' I may give it a little rinse," he says, "but I'm definitely going lean on my microbiome to give me a hand once in a while."
All soda cans get a little grimy as they move from the factory to the grocery store floor. But a glance at the conditions where you bought your canned drink could tell you just how dirty those cans might be. If you found them in dusty or dirty conditions, or if that last case of canned cocktails is past the expiration date, you might want to give them a wash.