Solution: Freeze the Toilet Water

Lately we've had the sneaking suspicion that we are healthier eating at home.

Student Finds Toilet Water Cleaner Than Ice at Fast Food Restaurants

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.

Bottom line: 70% of the time the toilet water had less bacteria than the ice.

Roberts says she'll think twice before getting ice at fast food restaurants again.

No kidding, and maybe not just ice, we think.

Her project won top prize at her school's science fair. It ought to win top prize throughout the nation.