38 per cent of people admit to eating food that has fallen from their bowls Credit: Elena Elisseeva/Alamy
38 per cent of people admit to eating food that has fallen from their bowls Credit: Elena Elisseeva/Alamy
As the item falls, I yell “wax paper”.
Friend who served in Afghanistan said the rule for American soldiers there is if it leaves your plate you do not eat it. Lots of serious diseases are common there.
“If it hits the ground, it belongs to the hound”
Silly me. I thought this was a basketball thread related to how long you could remain in the key area.
I saw the headline, and I thought “They are worried about the Three-Second-Rule? When travelling and double dribbling are pretty much ignored at the NBA level and is selectively enforced below that?”
I would not have guessed the article was about dropped food. Get a rat terrier or similar and dropped food will NOT be an issue.
Myhthbusters already did this. Their results were that if it was “wet” food don’t eat it. If it was dry not a big deal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoONY-ip7hQ
The Rule only applies if my Wife isn’t around.
Bought a $5 Dove Bar shaped like Mickey Mouse at Disneyland.
Sitting with a Friend watching the Kids and one of the Ears falls off. It landed on the hard Chocolate side, not the Ice Cream side. I pick it up, wipe it off and eat it.
Mt Friend laughs and says, five second rule? I look at him and say, nope, cheap bastard rule.
There’s no limit if it’s an M&M.
Nearly 1 year ago they said it was safe or most likely OK...
The ‘five second rule’ suggests that food dropped on the ground is still safe to eat if it is picked up after five seconds. Though long dismissed as wishful thinking, researchers at Aston University in England have now demonstrated that this rule may be more than just a myth.
In a study published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, researchers dropped various pieces of food – including toast, pasta, ham, a sticky dessert and dried fruit – on the floor and allowed it to sit there for three to 30 seconds. Various floor surfaces were tested including carpet, laminate and tile. Researchers then analyzed the dropped food to determine whether certain strains of bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus had been transferred from the floor.
Overall, the researchers concluded that the faster a person picks up dropped food, the safer it will be to eat – provided that he or she reacts within five seconds of dropping the food. Whether the food is dropped on carpet or tile also makes a difference, with carpet emerging as the safer environment for dropped foods compared to tile or laminate. Moist foods that were left on the floor for more than five seconds were most susceptible to becoming contaminated with bacteria.
“Consuming food dropped on the floor still carries an infection risk, as it very much depends on which bacteria are present on the floor at the time,” said Anthony Hilton, a professor of microbiology at Aston. “However, the findings of this study will bring some light relief to those who have been employing the five-second rule for years, despite a general consensus that it is purely a myth. We have found evidence that transfer from indoor flooring surfaces is incredibly poor with carpet actually posing the lowest risk of bacterial transfer onto dropped food.”
Another surprising finding in this study was that women were much more likely to follow the five second rule compared to men.
“Our study showed that a surprisingly large majority of people are happy to consume dropped food, with women the most likely to do so,” Hilton said in a press release. “But they are also more likely to follow the five second rule, which our research has shown to be much more than an old wives’ tale.”
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/03/14/is-5-second-rule-for-picking-up-dropped-food-safe.html
No! it is not a myth.
Well we have dogs so they impose a 3 sec rule .....because its 3 sec before they get it....
Oddly they never seem to have a problem from eating anything off the floor
It all depends. There’s no set rule.
It depends on the price of the dropped food,
the wetness/stickiness of the dropped food,
whether someone is watching,
and the reflexes of the dog in the room.
If there’s a cat in the house, dropped food goes in the trash, every time.
Late. Similar research already won an Ig Nobel Prize years ago.
Or, we could look at it as a method of keeping our immunities up to date for our local environ.
Research? On 3 seconds and food?
I am in the wrong business.
Oh for goodness sake. I hate to break it to everyone. We’re all going to die. I refuse to live my life fearful of every little thing. I use the 5 second thing very rare and it’s typically an m&m or pretzel. Nothing cooked or anything like that. Enjoy life!
Children need to eat more dirt!
Ha, ha...I’m still alive after following the three second rule for more than sixty years...so they can...hold it a second ...(gasp, cough)...I’ve been (hack, cough, hack)....eating food off the floor for (cough, hack, hack, gag) .....sixty years and (puts hands to throat choking and gasping for breath) ...wait....(falls on floor lifeless).
I would never eat anything that had fallen on the floor.