McDonald’s Touchscreens Test Positive For Traces Of Feces, Deadly Bacteria.

Traces of poop have been found on a number of McDonald’s touchscreen kiosks, an investigation has found.

The burger chain has added self-service kiosks that let customers tap what they want on the touchscreen before picking up their orders from the counter. And when the U.K. news site asked researchers at London Metropolitan University to test the screens at eight McDonald’s restaurants, including six in London and two in Birmingham, every one of them had coliforms, or the bacteria found in feces. A screen at one branch had traces of staphylococcus, a bacteria that can cause blood poisoning and toxic shock syndrome. Listeria, which can lead to miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women, was also found.

‘We were all surprised how much gut and fecal bacteria there was on the touchscreen machines,” Dr Paul Matawele, a senior lecturer in microbiology at London Metropolitan University, told Metro. “These cause the kind of infections that people pick up in hospitals.”

Klebsiella bacteria was also found, which can cause painful urinary tract infections, septicemia and diarrhea. Some species of the germs can even get into the respiratory tract and cause pneumonia.

McDonald’s say that they regularly clean the screens with disinfectant but the scientist feels it’s not enough as some of the germs remain there for days at a time.