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Anyone planning to switch to non-alcoholic beer, as health-conscious members of Generation Z have done in recent years, may find themselves getting sick even without the binge.
Non-alcoholic beer provides a perfect breeding ground for bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. According to a new study from Cornell University.
The buzz-free beer performed worse than both traditional beer and low-alcohol beer (defined as less than 2.5 percent alcohol by volume, or ABV), the researchers hypothesize, because of the alcohol’s cleansing properties.
Non-alcoholic beer has proven to be a breeding ground for bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella, according to a new study conducted at Cornell University. Non-buzz beer was worse than low-alcohol beer (less than 2.5% alcohol by volume), due to the alcohol’s antiseptic properties.
Non-alcoholic beer sales in the United States rose 32 percent, radically outpacing the growth of real booze, according to new data from surveyors at NielsenIQ.
Three different types of harmful bacteria were tested in both non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beer for more than two months.
Chilled non-alcoholic beer that was kept below 39.2 degrees F was able to remain safer to drink than the same beer at room temperature.
But researchers warned that keeping these drinks cold is not enough to keep them safe.
“Low- and non-alcoholic beers must be processed through pasteurization, to achieve commercial sterility,” advise the study authors, food scientists at Cornell’s AgriTech in collaboration with the Brewers Association in Boulder, Colorado.
“Sterile filtration and addition of preservatives should be considered as additional steps,” they wrote in the new study published in the journal. Food Protection Journal“To reduce these microbial risks.”
The researchers, led by food microbiologist Randy Worubaugh, tracked the effects of acidity (pH), storage temperature, and alcohol concentration (particularly ethanol) on whether or not microbial pathogens would multiply or die in beer.
Three acidity levels were tested in the beer, all of which are typical for wine, beer and similar alcoholic beverages: 4.20, 4.60 and 4.80.
Alcohol Concentrations were adjusted from their initial values, with the 3.65 percent ABV low-alcohol beer reduced to 3.20 percent ABV.
A mixture of five strains of coli bacteria O157:H7 bacteria and similar “cocktails”. Salmonella entericaAnd Listeria monocytogenesthen tested at each of these acidity and alcohol levels for two temperatures, 39.2°F (4°C) and 57.2°F (14°C).
Both E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella survived the low- and non-alcoholic beer for more than two months (63 days), but microbial colonies grew in the non-alcoholic beer.
For all test cases, L. monocytogenes The bacteria died during that time period.
As a foodborne pathogen, L. monocytogenes It can lead to a serious infection, listeriosis, which infects an estimated 1,600 people each year and kills approximately 206, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC).
Overall, non-alcoholic beer was a more fertile place for pathogens to grow, but the bacteria survived in a variety of conditions in both types of beer.
Regular beer, which can range from 4 to 5 percent ABV for “light” beer and up to 10 percent ABV for various “craft” beers, is immune to bacteria formation, a factor that allows it to do so. To be routinely stored by grocery stores at room temperature.
Food scientists at Cornell University now recommend that low- and non-alcoholic beers, with a pH above 4.20 in particular, should be reviewed by the brewery’s internal “processing body,” an expert in beer’s heat treatment requirements.
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