The danger of coffee vending machines?

by chee Leng (on coffee makers)
(Singapore)

I am a advocate for vending machine (mainly because I used to sell them) largely because they served consistent coffee all the time.

We all loves gourmet specialty coffee from that coffee shop down the corner, but we all know how it can be subjected to the mood of the baristas.

If he is happy, the coffee is great, otherwise, it could be burn or watery.

So, to me coffee vending machine is great. Serving great coffee (to me at least) every single time.

But, a measurement carried out by Karolinska Institutet in Sweden might change all these. They found out that the lead level in the water is dangerous for human consumption.

The acceptable limit in the water is 10mg per liter of water but they found 150 mg per liter for the coffee vending machine.

While more random test is being done to determine if it is due to a single make of machine or across all types of machine, authorities are asking all vending machine companies to check their lead level.

I believe this is likely to spread to other countries especially in Europe and then US.

Once, that happens, the first thing that consumer would felt is the increase in cost for their vending machine ingredients due to additional step to ensure their safety.

In addition, I believe a few make of vending machines that are not able to meet the standard might be recalled.

Having regular check is good and in fact even better for the consistency of vending machine coffee. One drawback about vending machine is the lack of maintenance, leading to pests infestation in the machine.

While cost might go up if this situation is really happening across all vending machine, at least there are job creation and the standard of vending machine would go up.

MY $0.02.