Bacteria analysis of Street Food (fwd) (2000/05/08)

Bacteria analysis of Street Food (fwd)

Posted by Nick Waterman on 2000/05/08 15:27

I think this person got the wrong ifis.org :-)

From: "jyoti bista" <jbista@>
To: webmaster@
Subject: Bacteria analysis of Street Food
Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 13:33:39 GMT

Respected sir,

I am student of m.sc Microbiology at Tribhuvan University,Nepal. Now I am
preparing my dissertation work on the topic "BACTERIAL ANALYSIS OF STREET
FOOD IN RELATION TO CHILD HEALTH OF KATHMANDU VALLEY".
I would be very grateful if you could kindly send me the article or
literature related to my topic that you have. I hope to get your
correspondence soon in my following address.

Email Address: jbista@

Thanking You

Mummun K.C.
Kathmandu,Nepal.
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Bacteria analysis of Street Food (fwd)

Posted by Ron W. on 2000/05/08 15:38

I think this person got the wrong ifis.org :-)

[stuff snipped]

Does the other IFIS have a chat mailing list?

Besides, even as a Biochemist, I have no idea about the "bacterial analysis
of street food in Kathmandu" However, as an educated guess, it's probably
something terrible, like 5*10^6 bacteria per gram of food.

Ron =$-)

Bacteria analysis of Street Food (fwd)

Posted by Nick Waterman on 2000/05/08 15:45

Wingrove RJ said:

I think this person got the wrong ifis.org :-)

[stuff snipped]

Does the other IFIS have a chat mailing list?

I don't know. I told them where to go looking though. They srent the email
to webmaster@ originally, not to chat.

Besides, even as a Biochemist, I have no idea about the "bacterial analysis
of street food in Kathmandu" However, as an educated guess, it's probably
something terrible, like 5*10^6 bacteria per gram of food.

Oh, and the rest... get more than 5 million on a pin-head, don't you?

Bacteria analysis of Street Food (fwd)

Posted by Ron W. on 2000/05/08 15:58

Wingrove RJ said:

I think this person got the wrong ifis.org :-)

[stuff snipped]

Does the other IFIS have a chat mailing list?

I don't know. I told them where to go looking though. They srent the email
to webmaster@ originally, not to chat.

Oh, OK. Besides, can you imagine what would happen on an IFIS chat list?
Assuming everyone on it kept to subject, of course... ;-)

Besides, even as a Biochemist, I have no idea about the "bacterial

analysis

of street food in Kathmandu" However, as an educated guess, it's

probably

something terrible, like 5*10^6 bacteria per gram of food.

Oh, and the rest... get more than 5 million on a pin-head, don't you?

<voice="lecturer"
Not after it's just been cooked. The temperature tolerance on even the most
resilient bacteria is about 60 deg. C. Even wood (or Yak dung) stoves should
get the temperature higher than that. After it's been cooked, it still takes
time for bacterial spores to seed the food in question and start dividing.
They will divide exponentially, of course, but it all takes time. E. Coli,
the example every microbiologist learns, doubles every 20mins. You do the
math...

Trust me, I'm a scientist (and I did say *educated* guess :-p)
</voice>

Bacteria analysis of Street Food (fwd)

Posted by ashleif@hotmail.com on 2000/05/10 15:47

But surely if you have immunity it's just another type of food?

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Bacteria analysis of Street Food (fwd)

Posted by Ron W. on 2000/05/10 16:07

But surely if you have immunity it's just another type of food?

Pop Quiz - how many different species of bacteria are there?

a) 10
b) 42
c) 1.5 Million
d) 100 Million

The answer is, of course, c. And they're discovering more every day, so it
could end up as d before you know it. Plus random mutants that technically
qualify as new species <looks guilty> and I didn't have anything to do with
releasing the plague that will kill the world... In any case, you simply
cannot be exposed to all of the bacteria (including some of the right nasty
ones) and live. It can't be done.

Besides which, the mammalian body doesn't have immunity to bacteria in the
way I think you mean. Generally speaking, the only reason we don't go down
with bacterial diseases every 5 mins because of Physical barriers, such as
skin and stomach acids, and even the presence of Commensal Bacteria in the
gut. The immune response doesn't have much of an effect. (that's antibodies,
white blood cells, and the like).

In theory, if you were immune to all of the bacteria in the world, you could
eat them with impunity, except that you'd have to eat trillions of them to
come up with the same nutritional value as, for example, the average
marshmallow. And most of a bacteria (i.e the cell wall, which makes up, by
mass, quite a large amount), is made of chitin, which is indigestible.

Any other silly questions?