Buyer Beware

Overview

Objectives/Goals The object of my science project was to find out which store#s shopping carts (Albertson#s, Pavillions, Rite Aid and Costco) had the greatest amount of bacteria. I believe that Rite Aid will have the greatest amount of bacteria because it has the highest person to cart ratio and doesn#t clean their carts. I think that Costco will have the least amount of bacteria because it has the lowest person to cart ratio and cleans their carts the most. Methods/Materials I swiped the handles and insides of two shopping carts from each store and inoculated them on a blood agar petri dish and left them in an incubator for three day to grow. After, I recorded my data. Results Pavillions had the least amount of colonies, while Rite Aid had the greatest amount of colonies and the most diverse. A colony on inside of a Rite Aid cart was beta-hemolytic streptococci, which causes Strep throat. Conclusions/Discussion My conclusion is that the amount of people who use the carts and how well they are cleaned do affect the amount of bacteria on a shopping cart.

Awards (1)

• Category Award

Competition history

• CSEF 2002 Microbiology · Entry J1331

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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