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Student finds toilet water cleaner than ice at fast food restaurants

By:Dave Balut

 

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

 

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.

 

Dave Balut, Tampa Bay's 10 News

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have been always thinking of that too. that's why, in restaurants, i always order bottled water and drink it directly from the bottle.

 

you may never know where those restaurants put, store or handle the ice.

It's not a matter of storage but production. Where do you think they get the water for the ice, and is the productionfacility santized?

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hmmm, maybe its the storage or the water quality

 

i've been in an ice factory and the tube ice isn't touched by human hands, a machine dispenses the end product into sacks. (maybe its the sacks) now block ice is another story. they drag the blocks around the floor so those must be dirty.

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hmmm, maybe its the storage or the water quality

 

i've been in an ice factory and the tube ice isn't touched by human hands, a machine dispenses the end product into sacks. (maybe its the sacks) now block ice is another story. they drag the blocks around the floor so those must be dirty.

 

 

just a thought:

 

aren't bacteria omnipresent?they're everywhere!in our girlfriends'/boyfriends' mouths when we kiss, in our bodies. so what's new?

what puzzles me though...bacteria aren't supposed to live in cold environments less than 5 deg Celsius. Ice is water at 0 degrees....

That's why we put food in the fridge so as not to spoil them...remember bacteria lhrives in hot and moist environs.

I think the research (or the report maybe) lacked substance and should be considered trash. It would have been better if the research stated whether or not dead bacteria or harmful ones exist in either toilet water or ice in restaurants....

come on guys, let's think like we really should...and not just believe in what is said or published....

 

question:

 

would you really drink toilet water in a restaurant or you really don't mind having iced tea?

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I guess na hindi lang yung ice ang issue dito kung hindi pati na din yung glass na pinaglalagyan ng ice when they are served to us. That's why sa kinakainan kong restaurant i rarely drink gamit ang baso nila unless of course kailangang-kailangan na at sa clubs naman i drink the beer straight from the bottle. It is really an alarming issue pero i guess na mas mabagsik ang ang mga bacteria sa states than in here, one of which is the flesh eating bacteria, i dont know lang kung meron nang case na ganito dito sa 'Pinas..

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For the most part, ice being transported to restaurants will tend to be ok (if the water used is clean). And blocks of ice will melt away or are chipped into smaller pieces, so the cleaner ice gets used.

 

A lot of the problem restaurants have with ice is how they store it. They may have an ice bin in the kitchen or store the ice in a walk-in refrigerator/chiller, but are they making sure they're aware of how employees handle themselves near the ice? Do they prepare food near the ice holder? Do they make sure nothing falls into the bin? Do they regularly clean the containers holding the ice? THAT'S where the bacteria comes from and comes in contact with the ice.

 

Most restaurant food poisoning doesn't come from the food itself - it comes from tainted ice.

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