Abstract
BACKGROUND: With the growing popularity of Kombucha, more people are beginning to either purchase or make their own Kombucha beverage. Due to the relatively recent rise in popularity, within the general public, not as much is known about the beverage compared to other beverages that have been on the market longer such as beer. This is important and relevant to public health because, due to the nature of the production method used to create Kombucha, the drink itself may contain alcohol. While at the time of production and distribution, the levels of alcohol are below the regulated maximum of 1%, these levels may increase on their own if measures were not put in place to stop the beverage from self-fermenting post-distribution. Kombucha is sold as a non-alcoholic beverage as they aren't required to be defined as liquor (because it is <1% ethanol), when in reality, they may contain more than 1% ethanol due to the self-fermentation process. This poses as a potential health risks to people who do not consume alcohol for personal reasons or to adolescents who should not be consuming alcohol. METHODS: This research involved the utilization of a self-administered online survey with the inclusion criteria of anyone in the general public, with exclusions of minors (<18 years of age) from the data analysis. The survey was distributed through Reddit on subreddits such as r/takemysurvey, r/samplesize, r/BCIT, etc... The survey consisted of ten questions to gather demographic information, as well as assess the participant's knowledge level for various aspects regarding kombucha. RESULTS: The reasons why participants consume Kombucha is heavily influenced by their knowledge of the ingredients within the beverage(p-value of 0.0000). These further correlates to how frequently they consume it, how many reasons they have for consuming it, and their various age groups. Statistical analysis on the survey participant population resulted in the following significance values: Ingredient awareness and consumption frequency: p-value of 0.0000; Age group and consumption frequency: p-value of 0.0000; Consumption frequency and number of reasons for consumption: p-value of 0.0000; Education level and fermentation occurrence knowledge: p-value of 0.0444; Storage temperature knowledge and fermentation occurrence knowledge: p-value of 0.7344. The statistical significance threshold set for these analyses was 0.05. CONCLUSIONS: With the results of this study, there is strong indication in the need for further public education regarding Kombucha's potential to ferment and that the storage temperature/environment of the kombucha is very important in preventing fermentation from occurring. Further regulations are needed to ensure that all manufacturing processes involve an inactivation step for the bacteria in Kombucha or requiring labelling on the cans/bottles themselves, indicating the need for refrigeration.