Students Find Toilet Water Cleaner Than Ice At Fast Food Restaurants

[matcom]

<snip>

New Tampa, Florida - 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.

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=25442

[NMMNG]

1. Eeeewwww

x( :puke:

Wait a minute! Why am I paying attention to some science project anyway? I should just see what the Bible has to say about this. :sarcasm:

[Dave Reynolds]

2. Wow, now they will charge more for ice.

Since it comes with bonus riders and all.

[Left Is Write]

3. Hmmm....gross, but I'm impressed by the student!

[leftofthedial]

4. man, I'm glad she wasn't testing the solids

:puke: :hurts: :scared:

[Benfea]

5. It's teh yummeh!

Now I'm gonna have to have a Big Mac Meal for dinner! -NT

[DS1]

6. unavailable for comment

[matcom]

7. Do Do Do

dododoooooodo

:D

[last_texas_dem]

8. Interesting

Maybe I shouldn't be so disgusted at my cat when I catch her drinking out of the toilet!

[Crazy Dave]

9. It's been a while since I've worked in food service....

....but it used to be the milkshake machines that we had to watch out for the most. One time the machines, not the restaurant was shut down by the health department until it was sterilized and tested again.

[BikeWriter]

10. Oh crap.

:shrug:

[Initech]

11. Somehow I'm not at all surprised at the outcome of this experiment...

Most fast-food restaraunts are pretty fucking disgusting when you get right down to it.

[LynzM]

12. Iiiew.

That's pretty gross... but restaurants are really not as clean as most people hope... :scared:

[Midlodemocrat]

13. That's why you always drink beer in the bottle

and that's why you only go to restaurants with liquor licenses.

[Beausoir]

14. "MARVIN ZINDLER -- EYEWITNESS NEWS!"

S-s-s-slime in the ice machine!

I love that guy.

Anyone else know who I am talking about?

[philosophie_en_rose]

15. Is it the same kind of bacteria?

Some bacteria are more disgusting than others.

[Fredda Weinberg]

16. In NYC, the machines are inspected e/m

[Elidor]

17. *grabs cup, heads for the bathroom*

O, wait, I was supposed to flush first, wasn't I?
x(

[UrbScotty]

18. I knew there was a good reason not to ask for ice (nt)

[redqueen]

19. They mix the soda there... so the soda should be tested as well.

Geez.

*feels ill*

[Nikia]

20. At the fast food restaurant I had worked for

The toilets were scrubbed at least once per day. I am not sure how often the ice machines were cleaned out. It seemed like we just kept putting ice in. I am sure that they were cleaned some time, but definitely not every day.

[norml]

21. That's because toilets get cleaned

the ice machine never does.