Urban Legends

The Dirty Straw of Fast Food Restaurants in the Philippines

Absolutely not true! Actually, this urban legend was featured in Snopes.com explaining the origin of this kind of story. 

Story

[Taken from Internet:] 

Horrible story of mine goes back to year 2005 March. 

I ordered a Club Sandwich and a Sprite in a restaurant somewhere in Manila . When I finished half of the sandwich I sipped a sprite. But it did not taste like an ordinary sprite I used to drink. So I sipped once more, but it still tasted the same. It tasted like a sprite mixed with some kind of oil. 

I called the clerk and asked him if the sprite was expired. He said it was just delivered today. So I asked him to taste it. Then he also found that something was wrong with it.. 

Both of us were wondering for a while. Then I got to look inside the straw. There were a lot of tiny black round things that looked like eggs. So I cut the middle of the straw lengthwise to have a better look. Yuck. There were a lot of tiny black round things in it. I suppose they were eggs of cockroach. About 1000 eggs were there. 

Then I began to check all the other straws in the straws case one by one. Almost all of them contained black eggs that seemed to be either the cockroach eggs or excretions. 

After the incident I began to check all the straws in the restaurants and fast food chains that I had gone to. Almost of all the straws contained the same black eggs. Especially the darker the colors of straws, the more black eggs were found. In black straws, extreme amount of black eggs were found. It was found out that it is because the cockroaches live (hatch eggs and excrete) in the dark places. 


Research result … 

Amount of germs and cockroach excretion/eggs found 

Jollibee - RED straws - 88.89% Chowking - RED straws - Almost the same as above Local Restaurants - BLACK straws - 225% above McDonalds - WHITE straws - 0.5% Starbucks - Straws covered with white wrappers - 0%

The fact is 80% or more restaurants in the malls use red or black colored straws – so be careful – it only takes a few second to check the straw before using.. The name of the person who wrote this article is Hannie. She is a Filipino, and I don't know why she's doing this. She posted it February 16, 2008. The reason why she made this: I don't know. We may assume she found some dirt from those straws, according to her, was used by fast food restaurants in the country. But I can say, her survey is partially true, she may found one but perhaps not 88.89% of them contain it. 

Well, this contemporary legend went to America, and even also plague them there. Of course, the story there is much different but you can trace the similarities.

[Taken from Internet:] 

Be careful while using straws!! 

I ordered a Club Sandwich and a Sprite in a restaurant somewhere. When I finished half of the sandwich I sipped a sprite... But it didn't taste like an ordinary sprite I used to drink. So I sipped once more, but it still tasted the same. It tasted like a sprite mixed with some kind of oil. 

I called the clerk and asked him if the sprite was expired... He said it was just delivered today.. So I asked him to taste it. Then he also found that something was wrong with it. 

Both of us were wondering for a while. Then I got to look inside the straw. There were a lot of tiny black round things that looked like eggs. So I cut the middle of the straw lengthwise to have a better look... Yuck. There were a lot of tiny black round things in it... I suppose they were eggs of cockroach. About 1000 eggs were there. Then I began to check all the other straws in the straws case one by one. Almost all of them contained black eggs that seemed to be either the cockroach eggs or excretions... 

After the incident I began to check all the straws in the restaurants and fast food chains that I had gone to. Almost of all the straws contained the same black eggs. Especially the darker the colors of straws, the more black eggs were found. In black straws, extreme amount of black eggs were found. It was found out that it's because the cockroaches live (hatch eggs and excrete) in the dark places. 

* 80% or more restaurants in the malls use red or black colored straws. 

SO NEXT TIME.... BE CAUTIOUS... CHECK THE STRAW BEFORE YOU PLACE IT INSIDE THE DRINKS. This is the foreign version, but more latest one than the first article above. According here, the author found 1000 eggs in a single straw. It was to much to contain a single straw without noticing them.

If this was really true, then how come there's no news about restaurants in the Philippines became involved with this problem? By the way, how did the cockroach get inside on such a small hole just to lay an egg almost the same size as the hole of some of the straws.