Happy Birthday! My present? yeap, here I leave you some bacteria…!!

Research has shown that blowing the birthday candles increases 15 times the number of bacteria on the cake.

Did you know that every wish you've asked the birthday candles has left the cake 15 times more polluted? While it is obvious that saliva falling on the cake has some effect, a study at Clemson University in South Carolina demonstrated in detail how much bacteria increase on the cake with this practice.

The research proved that blowing the candles increases, on average, 1,479% the number of bacteria remaining on the surface. The question about how many bacteria is left on the cake, come from a teenage. Questions are made to students that would make a person obsessed with germs.

To do the experiment, a team - 11 students - decided to give their best to simulate the atmosphere of a birthday party: they ordered pizza and ate it before breaking the cake. The students wanted to stimulate the production of saliva as would happen under normal conditions.

Then each of the students blew a "cake": a foil platform mounted on foil and covered with glaze. Each student blew 17 candles. The process was repeated in three different moments, to have several samples.

Subsequently they mixed each glaze with sterilized water and then cultured in Petri dishes, where the bacteria grew. The findings found that, in effect, the traditional gesture leaves traces of bacteria from the mouth and respiratory system on the cake.

In addition, they realized that for some unidentified reason, some students “send out” more bacteria to the cake than others. And that, in addition, every day a different amount of microorganisms was transmitted to the cake.

But how serious is this? Not much as the research concluded. And you do not have to be a genius to come to this conclusion: if it were a dangerous practice in terms of food safety, it would have already been banned or at least regulated.

Reality shows that if you blew your birthday candles 100,000 times, the risk of getting sick would still be very low.

References:
http://www.clemson.edu/
https://www.theatlantic.com/world/
https://www.forbes.com/#7d3d42bd2254
http://web.ccsenet.org/

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