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Debunking Food Myths: How Safe Is It?

ISEF · 2016 Biomedical Engineering

Guan, Raymond, Lim, Tatiana

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Overview

There are several “safe” food myths that are prevalent in today’s society, but the question remains whether or not they actually hold true. To determine the safeness of following certain food myths, the project at hand examined the level of bacterial contamination produced from various simulated food traditions such as blowing on dropped food, following the “five second rule”, and blowing out candles on a birthday cake. Bacterial growth analysis was conducted by swabbing nutrient agar plates with food samples and counting the number of colonies. Initial identification of the bacteria was done by gram staining. Despite the common belief that many food myths are effective, the experiment suggests that these traditions may only serve to expose oneself to more bacteria that could have been avoided initially. Furthermore, by gram staining, patterns of recurring bacteria collected in the trials were established and common bacterial species were identified.

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Source: Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair

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