Indigo jones

Did you ever wonder how clean the ice in a fast food restaurant is?
Jasmine Roberts, a 12 year old from Benito Middle School in New Tampa, Florida certainly did. She chose her 7^th grade science project in an effort to find out.

Roberts states: “ My hypothesis was that the fast food restaurant’s ice would contain more bacteria than the fast food restaurant’s toilet water.”

Roberts set out to test her theory, selecting five fast food outlets within a 10-mile radius of the University of South Florida.

In each restaurant, she flushed the toilet once, and used sterile gloves and a sterile beaker to gather water samples.

She asked for cups of ice from both the drive through windows, and the soda fountains inside the restaurants.
The samples were tested at the Moffitt Cancer Center where she volunteers with a USF professor. The results did not surprise her.

Roberts found that 70% of the time, the ice contained more bacteria than the toilet water. YUK!

Her teacher, Mark Danish, was concerned, yet not surprised.

“It does concern me and I think with any restaurant you have to think twice about what you may get there.” Personally, I’d prefer not to think about it at all.

Jasmine Roberts received first place in the regional science fair and won $800 for her project.

Tags: a 12 year old from Benito Middle School in New Tampa, bacteria in fast food ice vs. toilet water, Benito Middle School, fast food, fast food cleanliness, ice, Jasmine Roberts, Mark Danish, Moffitt Cancer Center, New Tampa Florida, science, science fair, she flushed the toilet once, toilet water, University of South Florida

This entry was posted on September 7, 2012 at 6:58 am and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.