This Is the Germiest Item in a Restaurant, According to a Microbiologist
Updated: Aug. 20, 2024
Germs are all over common restaurant surfaces, but this one item tops them all. Here's how to protect yourself from getting sick.
Picture it: You’ve just been seated at your favorite restaurant. You’re looking over the menu while the server describes the delicious specials, and your stomach is already rumbling. You just need to decide which tasty dish you’d like to order. As you think about it, what do you do? If you’re like most people, you touch your face, cradling your cheek in your palm or tapping a finger to your lips, nose or chin. These common “thinking gestures” wouldn’t be a problem—except the germiest item in the restaurant was probably just in your hands.
“The average person touches their face 16 times an hour, but it’s far higher when they’re making a decision,” explains Jason Tetro (aka the Germ Guy), a microbiologist, author of The Germ Code and the host of The Super Awesome Science Show podcast. “The problem with this behavior in restaurants is that there are a lot of high-touch surfaces … and those places are where we find the most germs.” Read on to find out which item is the germiest of them all.
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How do germs spread in restaurants?
A high-touch surface is anything that lots of people touch a lot of times—think door knobs, countertops, light switches, faucet handles and paper towel dispensers—particularly those in public places. “When we look at how illnesses spread through a community, we’ve found that a major source is from indirect transmission through contact with these high-touch surfaces,” Tetro says.
It makes sense: Say someone with norovirus (a nasty stomach bug) doesn’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom and then uses the handle to open the door on their way out. When you use that same handle a few minutes later, the virus ends up on your hands, and when you touch your face, it enters your body. It’s not long before you’re spending extra time in the bathroom too.
“Germs can live longer on surfaces than most people think,” he says. For instance, the flu virus can live on a nonporous surface for up to 48 hours, while norovirus can last two weeks. “And this is true even when the surface has been cleaned,” he says. “Mostly because people aren’t really cleaning them as well as they think they are.”
Which leads us back to that restaurant you’re currently sitting and salivating in. Before you sat down, the busser cleared the table, pulled out a wet rag and gave the table a good wipe down. Because he’s conscientious, he used that same rag to wipe the ketchup bottle, the salt and pepper shakers, the benches or chairs, and the menus … and then he plopped that rag back into the bucket of water he’s been using all night and repeated the cleaning process at the next table.
Ah, but perhaps he’s using a disinfectant spray! Even then, he’s probably not using it properly, Tetro says. Quite a lot of product is required, and it needs to sit for several minutes before being wiped down again with clean water.
You see the problem? Not only are lots of people touching these restaurant spots, but thanks to that communal rag, germs on one surface are transferred to every other surface. And one item is more germ-ridden than the others.
How did scientists determine the germiest restaurant item?
Tetro and his associates have spent decades studying how various germs live and spread in a wide variety of public and private places. They start by selecting items of interest, swabbing them and then transferring that sample to a petri dish. They give the culture a little time to grow in the lab before examining it to see what types of microbes are growing—usually a mix of bacteria, viruses and sometimes fungi. From there, they can determine which items are growing the most microbes.
In Tetro’s restaurant study, they swabbed and cultured germs from menus, salt and pepper shakers, ketchup bottles and sugar packets—all things that sit on top of a restaurant table.
Have we kept you in suspense long enough? (Don’t touch your face while you think about that!)
So what is the germiest item in a restaurant?
Tetro found that the item that had the most microbes was the menu. Reusable menus, especially those that are laminated or kept in plastic binders, are often wiped with dirty, wet rags and stored stacked on top of one another, creating a perfect breeding ground for bacteria.
What other restaurant items are teeming with germs?
“Personally, I wouldn’t trust the table itself or anything on the table because it’s all getting wiped with that same dirty cloth,” Tetro says. But any high-touch surface is likely covered in germs, he adds.
The ketchup bottle was the second dirtiest item, followed by the salt and pepper shakers. (As a waitress for over 10 years, I can attest to the fact that, while we refilled these items daily and gave them a cursory wipe, they were rarely truly cleaned out and sanitized.) The sugar packets were the least infected because they are single-use items, designed to be used and thrown away.
How you can stay safe
While Tetro’s research is unappetizing, some basic precautions can keep you safe and healthy when you dine out.
Wash your hands with soap and water
The No. 1 tip for any disease prevention is to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, Tetro says. At a restaurant, he recommends washing up just before eating (and after touching the menu).
Carry hand sanitizer
Hand-washing isn’t always possible or convenient, but hand sanitizer is the next best thing. “I carry an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with me everywhere I go and always wash or sanitize my hands right before eating and afterward,” Tetro says. Is it awkward pulling out a bottle of sanitizer at the table? “Not as much as you’d think,” he says. “In fact, people usually ask me to share with them.”
He adds that you can even use a squirt of hand sanitizer to disinfect the table in front of you if you feel so inclined.
Use disinfecting wipes
Carry a travel-size package of surface disinfecting wipes, and wipe down the items you will touch, like the menu and table. Note: To truly disinfect a surface, you need to get it thoroughly wet with the disinfectant and let it dry—a quick swipe won’t do much.
Use touchless menus
QR codes and other types of touchless menus are a great option for lessening your exposure to germs, he says. You should still wash or sanitize your hands afterward, though. Your phone is likely pretty germy as well.
Keep your hands away from your face
Make a conscious effort to avoid touching your face. Now that you know about this tendency, it should be easier to stop yourself in the act.
And never lick your fingers—that’s just bad table manners. “Not only can it make you sick,” he says, “but it’s just gross.”
Use disposable items
It may not be great for the environment, but paper napkins and disposable silverware are easier to keep germ free.
Don’t stop eating out
There’s taking proper precautions to stay safe and healthy and then there’s worrying about it so much that it ruins your dining experience—something that should be fun and relaxing.
“We did find a lot of germs on these items, but the risk to healthy people of becoming infected is relatively low,” Tetro says. “Just try to stay aware of your environment and what you’re touching, and wash your hands regularly.”
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Sources:
- Jason Tetro, microbiologist, author of The Germ Code and The Germ Files, and the host of The Super Awesome Science Show podcast; phone interview, Aug. 16, 2024
- FoodSafety.gov: “Bacteria and viruses”
Originally Published: August 20, 2024
