The Canadian Center for Science and Education conducted an experiment to determine if blowing out candles could transmit bacteria to those who then ate the cake. A teacher and his students then covered a piece of polystyrene with aluminum foil and then with icing and candles to recreate a birthday cake. The guinea pig students even ate pizza before puffing to simulate a birthday party. And the result is clear:there are between 14 times and 120 times more bacteria on a cake whose candles have been blown out than on those which have escaped this rain of microbes. Yuck!
Blowing out your candles is fun, we make a wish, it's part of the tradition but in reality... we give all our germs to all our friends! Well, rest assured, there is nothing to worry about since the bacteria present in the mouth are for the most part harmless, and the director of the study added that even if we ate a cake that been blown 100,000 times, we wouldn't get sick. So there is no risk. Obviously, if the king or queen of the day is himself sick, there is a good chance that we will end up with his flu or his gastro, in this case, we run away from the cake (but we hope that the person will have the presence of mind not to blow out your candles especially!). For the rest, we relax and take a slice!
