Posted on 10/07/2003 11:55:33 AM PDT by flutters
Food-on-floor rule, used by kids and parents alike, is put to the test
Oops! Youve dropped your Oreo on the floor. Do you pick it up and eat it? Its a test of the five-second rule": If a foodstuff is on the floor less than five seconds, its safe to snarf.
But is that true?
A young researcher set out to determine the answer during her summer internship in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her findings surprised even her microbiologist mentor.
There were a very low number of microorganisms on the floor," said Jillian Clarke, 16, a senior at Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.
Clarke and Meredith Agle, a doctoral candidate at Illinois, took swab samples of floors at dozens of locations around the Champaign-Urbana campus.
We did it several times," Agle said. The floors are clean. We did a bunch of areas: near vending machines, the library, cafeteria. There just werent high numbers of bacteria on any floors."
Thats probably because floors are dry, Agle said. Germs thrive in damp environments.
But dont gobble that Oreo just yet.
Clarke repeated the swab test in the laboratory on rough and smooth floor tiles inoculated with E. coli bacteria. She dropped foods, timed them there, then examined them under a microscope.
Items dropped on infected flooring indeed were contaminated in less than five seconds.
So, the good news: Chances are the floor beneath your fumbled Oreo doesnt contain E. coli. The bad news: If it does, your cookie is contaminated and shouldnt be eaten.
Id applied that five-second rule a lot," Clarke said. But I never really took time to think about it."
Neither had food-safety expert Peter Slade. Ive heard it from my kids," he said.
Slade is an associate professor at the National Center for Food Safety and Technology in Summit-Argo, Ill., a research consortium affiliated with the Illinois Institute of Technology.
I turn a blind eye when my kids drop something on the kitchen floor," Slade said. But then, I assume our kitchen floor is relatively clean, not inoculated with E. coli."
If the floor is contaminated, sticky items are especially dangerous. Peanut butter and jelly, facedown, thats a goner," he said.
And dont think that shaking or blowing will help. You may remove visible dirt, but those bugs are microscopic," he said.
Keith Schneider agrees. As an assistant professor in the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Schneider writes fact sheets for the food industry on safety issues. One warned in capital letters, THERE IS NO FIVE-SECOND RULE WHEN IT COMES TO FOOD SAFETY!"
Have I eaten a cookie or piece of food after Ive dropped it? Yes," Schneider said. Have I ever given my child a piece of food when it was dropped? No. Have I ever served food that had contacted the floor? No."
Schneiders advice: When in doubt, throw it out."
Still, the rule has proven pervasive.
I think anybody with kids knows that rule," said Lynne Olver, a librarian and food researcher in Whippany, N.J.
Unless you have a dog. Dogs are in there within four seconds."
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Luckily enough, E. Coli literally smells like s**t, so a good rule of thumbs is if something smells like s**t, don't put it in your mouth.
Indeed.
Actually I believe the dog intentionally spends her time under my feet in the kitchen trying to cause a food fumble that will result in an instant doggie treat. There is no chance food will last even four seconds when she's there!
Now, now...let's not be sexist. Oogling a handsome man takes just as much time. ;^)
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