The techniques of opening and decanting ready-to-use enteral feeds packaged in bottles (crown-cap and screw-cap), cans and tetrapaks were evaluated as potential routes for the contamination of these feeds. It was found that the outsides of the feed containers, bottle openers, scissors and the experimenters' hands all acted as sources of contamination during the transfer of feeds to the nutrient container. The main source of contamination appeared to be the experimenters' hands with counts up to 10(2) cfu ml(-1) being recorded for feeds that had been decanted from screw-cap bottles, cans and tetrapaks by experimenters with either unprotected bare hands or hands experimentally contaminated with K. aerogenes. Levels of contamination and the number of samples contaminated after opening and decanting were consistently higher for cans and tetrapaks than for crown-cap or screw-cap bottles. Disinfection of feed containers followed by the use of sterile gloves and/or disinfected openers yielded bacteria-free feed from all the types of feed container studied.