Bacteria analysis of Street Food (fwd)

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.
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

---

Nick Waterman. Senior Systems Administrator, Sony Interactive Services
mailto:nick-sig@ http://www.nilex.co.uk/~nick/
AX25:G7RZQ@#32.GBR.EU #include <stddisclaimer> Team *AMIGA*!
We're in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk.

[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 =$-)

Wingrove RJ said:
I don't know. I told them where to go looking though. They srent the email
to webmaster@ originally, not to chat.
Oh, and the rest... get more than 5 million on a pin-head, don't you?

---

Nick Waterman. Senior Systems Administrator, Sony Interactive Services
mailto:nick-sig@ http://www.nilex.co.uk/~nick/
AX25:G7RZQ@#32.GBR.EU #include <stddisclaimer> Team *AMIGA*!
Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark.

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

But surely if you have immunity it's just another type of food?
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

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?