Your next McDonald's meal might come with an unwanted side order of fecal bacteria.

Metro, a newspaper in the United Kingdom, went to several of the restaurant's locations and swabbed the touchscreens customers use to place their orders. 

Results showed that every touchscreen tested had coliforms of some sort.

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

Matewele and his team were expecially concerned to find staphylococcus on one of the touchscreens. That's a bacteria that Metro says can cause blood poisoning and toxic shock syndrome.

"Seeing staphylococcus on these machines is worrying because it is so contagious," he said. "It starts around people’s noses, if they touch their nose with their fingers and then transfer it to the touchscreen someone else will get it, and if they have an open cut which it gets into, then it can be dangerous."

Matewele suggests washing your hands after using a touchscreen at McDonald's or any other restaurant.

McDonald's, when contacted by Metro, issued a written statement indicating that the touchscreens are cleaned regularly and that customers have access to hand-washing facilities at each of the chain's locations.