Posted on 02/14/2006 9:08:30 AM PST by Feiny
12-year-old Jasmine Roberts is a seventh-grade student at Benito Middle School in New Tampa.
When it came time for her to choose a science project, she wondered about the ice in fast food restaurants.
Jasmine Roberts, 7th-grade student: "My hypothesis was that the fast food restaurants’ ice would contain more bacteria that the fast food restaurants’ toilet water."
So Roberts set out to test her hypothesis, selecting five fast food restaurants, within a ten-mile radius of the University of South Florida.
Roberts says at each restaurant she flushed the toilet once, the used sterile gloves to gather samples.
Jasmine Roberts: "Using the sterile beaker I scooped up some water and closed the lid."
Roberts also collected ice from soda fountains inside the five fast food restaurants. She also asked for cups of ice at the same restaurant's drive thru windows.
She tested the samples at a lab at the Moffitt Cancer Center where she volunteers with a USF professor. Roberts says the results did not surprise her.
Jasmine Roberts: "I found that 70-percent of the time, the ice from the fast food restaurant's contain more bacteria than the fast food restaurant's toilet water."
Roberts' graph shows the toilet water, shown in red, had less bacteria in most cases than the ice inside shown in blue, and the ice from drive-through windows shown in green. Roberts' teacher says he wasn't surprised either.
Mark Danish, Honors Science Teacher: "It does concern me and I think with any restaurant you have to think twice about what you may get there."
Roberts says she'll think twice before getting ice at fast food restaurants again.
Her project won the science fair at Benito Middle School, and she hopes to win the top prize at the Hillsborough County Regional Science and Engineering Fair, which starts Tuesday at the USF Sun Dome.
There are bacteria everywhere, and the presumption is that that alone is a cause for concern. Frankly, I think this is mere alarmist claptrap, a problem that is no problem.
The problem is. Without 'bacteria' we wouldn't be able to digest our food.
Where's the figs.? She cheated by flushing the toilet. The ice sits out in the open. A freshly flushed toilet contains the same water the ice is made from. Had she aged the toilet water, like the ice, the results would have been different.
One of our local news stations did this awhile back. They also tested school, and shopping mall water fountains.
The toilet water was cleanest-They also tested water bottles-Some people keep one store bought plastic bottle, and just refill it from the tap. Ugh, they were icky, too.
Guess our pets are onto something.
Yeah, but we rely on the bacteria native to our own digestive systems, not from some prepubescent, pimply-faced future welfare recipient who doesn't wash his/her hands after using the restroom.
What is the point of buying bottled water & refilling it from the tap?
Why can't we get purified water direct from the tap? I have to put a filter on it.
The greatest nation in the world & we can't get drinkable water from our tap.
WE ARE DOOMED, DOOMED I TELL YOU!!!
Actually, there might even be a bleach tablet in the toilet (either hanging inside the bowl or in the tank if present). Without reading her report, we don't know whether the toilet water was sanitized with bleach prior to sampling.
I went into a Popeye's the other day and noticed that their sanitation rating was 90%. I didn't order anything, but could anyone translate this rating into words for me? How "dirty" is 90%?
I say all the vodka I drink kills any bacteria I may consume.
DRINK VODKA!
I've always ordered fast food drinks without ice on economic grounds. Why pay way more than a grocery store would charge for half a cup of ice and half a cup of soda?
Well, it does help explain the "fast" in fast food that happens from time to time :)
Most ice machines have a filtration system that toilets dont use. I am wondering if the filtration system is addine the bacteria. The filters sometimes arent changed very often as they filter out particles not bacteria.
If the Sanitation form is standard,
you should be able to read the items checked that counted
off points.
Everything from food storage, head coverings, sanitation to is the stock stacked too high in the storeroom.
Yeah, but see, it has been established that the toilet in the restroom is cleaner than the ice. We should be more worried that they will touch the ice, and then transfer some of that bacteria to the toilet.
It's approximately 10% shy of the expected health department tax revenue potential. Restaurants and bars pay hundreds or thousands of dollars every year for a few slips of "Come tax me!" paperwork that contribute absolutely nothing to the business or its revenues and profits.
Lovely...
/johnny
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