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News 2 is helping you fight the battle against bacteria. During an exclusive experiment, we tested nine different instant hand sanitizers at a local microbiology lab at LSU.

"We touched our hands to one of the plates that was sterile before we began," Microbiologist Karen Sullivan said. "Then we used the hand sanitizer like you normally would, and touched another one of the culture plates to see how many bacteria were pres3ent before and after we used the sanitizer."

The results were surprising.

"They didn't all quite work the same, and none of them really killed the majority of bacteria on our hands."

All of the brands we tested claimed to kill 99.9% of bacteria on hands. But, that clearly wasn't the case during our experiment.

Here's how the brands stacked up:

• Germ X Advanced reduced bacteria by 30%.
• Germ X reduced bacteria by 70%.
• Walgreens reduced bacteria by 71%.
• Dermacen reduced bacteria by 95%.
• Winn-Dixie was the only brand where bacteria colonies actually increased. Researchers saw a 41% increase in bacteria growth.

Doctors said the best method of keeping your hands clean involves soap and a sink. However, if your only have access to instant hand sanitizer, use it.

The manufacturer of Germ X, Vi Jon, told News 2 our study was uncontrolled, unscientific and may not be accurate. Vi Jon workers said FDA testing shows Germ X has 99.99% kill reductions on all of its products.

Winn Dixie released this statement about our experiment:

"Winn-Dixie takes the health and safety of our customers very seriously. We support the effectiveness of our product, as it has undergone FDA-approved testing. The manufacturer of our Winn-Dixie brand hand sanitizer maintains the highest levels of quality standards for our product, as well as the other brands they produce."

Tomorrow, we will test four more popular brands including: Target, Bath & Body Works and Purell. Stay tuned to "Battle Against Bacteria Part 2" as News 2 helps you fight germs.

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