Sorry to be the fun police, but you need to stop blowing out birthday candles immediately.

Kids parties are funner than adult parties because there’s always cake. And candles.

The kids (and some adults) gather round the lucky little one and sing happy birthday. All is good.

Then, the child blows out the candle. With really young kids, more saliva escapes their mouth than air and it tends to coat the top of the cake. So yes, that spreads germs.

But once they’re a little older – say two or three-years-old – and similarly with adults, the candle blow-out tends to be relatively clean.

Or so it seems.

Listen: cake at kids’ parties not your thing? Maybe a glass of champers or a vodka red bull is more up your ally.  Post continues after audio.

The Journal of Food Research conducted a study this year to answer the question once and for all: does blowing out candles really spread germs all over the top of a cake.

Researchers spread a layer of birthday cake icing over foil, which was then placed over Styrofoam (to represent a cake). Candles were then lit and placed through the foil into the Styrofoam.

Subjects were asked to consume the greatest of all party foods – pizza – and then extinguish the candles by blowing.

Samples of the icing were removed and surface plated to determine the level of bacterial contamination.

The results?

"Blowing out the candles over the icing surface resulted in 1400% more bacteria compared to icing not blown on."

In other words, MANY GERMS.

This isn't such an issue if the person blowing out the candles is in good health. There's bacteria all around us, and most of it is actually good.

Yes, you'll consume "bacteria and other micro-organisms from the respiratory tract" of the person. But it probably won't do you any harm.

If they're sick, however, it's another story. They'll be transferring all their grimy, evil, infected bacteria onto your slice of cake.

We suggest you politely decline.