Dawson, P: Bacterial Transfer During Eating

This book reviews literature related to bacterial transfer in foods and reports on a research study that deals specifically with bacterial transfer during eating rice or soup. Sharing food from a common bowl or plate is a common practice in some cultures and not uncommon in all societies. Sharing popcorn at a movie is commonplace and an example of this practice. In addition to reviewing published literature related to this subject this book also describes a specific study examining the transfer of bacteria from mouth to different utensils (spoon, chopstick, hand) and from utensils to food (chicken broth, rice). Sharing food may be also result in sharing bacteria and other microorganisms found in a person‘s mouth. Even though this study did not examine the transfer of disease-causing microbes, common knowledge tells us disease is often spread from person to person from microorganisms found in the mouth. Please read about background related to food cross contamination and how our study tested the transfer of bacteria when food is shared.