Airplane food tray (Photo : Airliners.net)
A microbiologist sent by travel website Travelmath.com took 26 samples from items found in five U.S. airports and four jets of two major airlines. Tests conducted discovered that the item with the most colony-forming units (CFU) per square inch was the food tray.
Fox reports that the tray had 2,155 CFUs. In a report made, Travelmath.com points out that since the food tray provides bacteria direct transmission to the mouth, it suggested passengers to avoid having their food be in direct contact with the tray.
Next to the tray, the other dirty items were the drinking fountain button (1,240 CFU), overhead air vents (285 CFU), lavatory flush buttons (265 CFU), seatbelt buckles (230 CFU) and bathroom stall locks (70 CFU).
The travel website explains the high CFU of plane tray tables to the short turnaround time between flights for the cabin attendants or cleaning crew to give it a thorough scrub.
However, while the microbiologist did not name the bacteria found, according to Travelmath.com, the 26 samples had no fecal coliforms such as E.coli which are potential sources of infection.
Those six items, though, pale in comparison to two things found in homes with animals, according to a test of 22 households made by the National Science Foundation, reports Daily Mail. Pet bowls have 306,000 CFUs, while pet toys have 19,000 CFUs.
Two other household items had comparable CFUs to those found in planes and gateways. These are home countertops with 361 CFU and home toilet seats with 172 CFU. Mobile phones only had 27 CFU, while money had 5 CFU.
