Hand washed dishes were more likely to contain traces of both
bacteria and viruses than those cleaned in a commercial
dishwasher (UPI) -- Current protocols for washing dishware in
restaurants may not be enough to guard against the highly
contagious norovirus, or stomach flu, U.S. researchers say. "We
know that when public food establishments follow the cleaning
protocols, they do a very good job at getting rid of bacteria,"
Melvin Pascall, associate professor at Ohio State University,
said in a statement. "Now we can see that the protocols are less
effective at removing and killing viruses -- and this may help
explain why there are still so many illnesses caused by cross-
contaminated food." Pascall and Jianrong Li, an assistant
professor of virology at Ohio State, led a team to test the
ability of the norovirus and common bacteria to survive food
service cleaning. The research team infused cream cheese and
reduced fat milk -- two foods that are known for being difficult
to clean off -- with murine norovirus,