The 5-Second Rule Investigated

j-beda writes "Here is an interesting report on a student project about the 5-second rule: ' If You Drop It, Should You Eat It? Scientists Weigh In on the 5-Second Rule.' 'According to Clarke, a senior at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, the 5-second rule dates back to the time of Genghis Khan, who first determined how long it was safe for food to remain on a floor when dropped there. Khan had slightly lower standards, however; he specified 12 hours, more or less.' How long can you safely leave dropped food on the floor before picking it up to eat? You know you've always wanted to have the definitive answer ..."

Comments

First...

[Anonymous Coward]

5-second post.

Findings don't just apply to floors

[tessaiga]

Among Clarke's findings:

--Cookies and candy are much more likely to be picked up and eaten than cauliflower or broccoli.

I find the same thing applies to cookies and candies on plates too.

I use the five hair rule

[karmavore]

I have a dog, four cats a wife two daughters and a niece. If it comes off the ground with more than 5 hairs or if a hair is more than 5 inches it's no good.

5 seconds? Disgusting

[Dancin_Santa]

Everyone knows it's the 3-second rule.

Mmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

...floor pie.

Student life

[E_elven]

I'd be happy to eat off the floor, if I had a floor or food, you insensitive clod!

Re:Nasty....

[Henry V .009]

Where the hell did you work? The more usual experience is that when the big slab of meat falls to the ground, it's fine once the crushed roaches get scraped off.

Not the floor

[Alethes]

It depends on much more important factors than the cleanliness of the floor:

1) How hungry I am
2) How good the food is
3) How able I am to replace the food I dropped

Health be damned!

Haiku

[Anonymous Coward]

When I drop my meat
Bacteria get to eat
And I move to pie

Lousy Experiment

[Red Pointy Tail]

Taking samples of 1 square inch and monitoring it for microbes and spores? What a lousy experiment.

What they should do is to hire 500 students to continually drop food and candy on the floor, pick it up again for consumption, and then monitor their well-being over the course of many weeks. Those wimps ;)

Re:um, yuck

[Alizarin Erythrosin]

That would explain this case of athlete's stomach...

Re:I use the five hair rule

[Anonymous Coward]

Double Tard.
You had to be crude, but then you couldn't even do it right.

He's bragging that he's surrounded by all that pussy.

That way you include the cats.

Re:Nasty....

[sporktoast]

Where the hell did you work?
My experience was that when a slab of meat hit the floor, the call went out on the line to hold it for the next shmoe who asked for his steak to be well done.

I am a vegetarian these days.

Especially in Chem Lab

[luekj]

I mean, five seconds in Hydrochloric acid. That will just make it even cleaner, right?

Or at least take some of the load off my poor stomach.....

so how long does it take?

[Mr.Coffee]

I , for one, am outraged! the article stated that the E.coli bacteria transferred to the gummy bears in 5 seconds, but they didn't do any testing to see what the minimal time for safety was. how am i supposed to know how long that cookie is still good for?

I'm stickin with it

[Stubtify]

if you have e. coli on your floors the 5 second rule is the least of your worries.

Re:I'm stickin with it

[Zillatron]

You have e.coli in your intestines, are you going to worry about that too?

O.K. you got me there. I promise if I drop a cookie into my intestine, I won't be putting it back into my mouth.

No matter what

5 second rule?

[Kowh]

The five second rule is stricted enforced around here. In fact, usually we don't even get all five seconds. Any dropped food instantly becomes property of the canine clean-up service, and they don't take kindly to "take-backs".

Or rather they do, but they look at you with puppy dog eyes and you're forced to drop the food again.

Re:Deep Fry It

[richie2000]

In some resturaunts if it falls on the floor it just gets deep fried for a few seconds. I think you can deep fry just about anything...

I just want to know how they get the floor to fit in the fryer.

Re:Nasty....

[linzeal]

This is too true. We did the same thing for pizza that did not hit the floor, we had a sexy sounding girl convince drunk college students that they wanted whatever was ordered and could not be delivered or paid for.

Re:bacteria

[core plexus]

I think it's sometimes overblown, but I grew up on a farm. Sometimes after turning over cow patties looking for bugs, I'd find a carrot or pick some berries or something and eat it. If I had bothered to wash my hands, it was in the same pond the cows and other animals drank from and pissed in. I'm betting not only did it 'cure' me of the croup, but it also made me resistant later on.

On the other hand, now if food hits the floor, or even the counter sometimes, I just let the dogs have it, unless it's something that can be washed and recooked real quick.

-cp-

Depends on where you stand

[tsa]

If you stand in the middle of a busy highway then 5 seconds might be way too long.

Re:I use the five hairs rule

[gibber]

I have three cats, a wife and periodic guests and visitors. I generally use the same rule. I have, however, one important addendum:

• No short, thick, curly hairs.

Re:bacteria

[RobertB-DC]

I think it's sometimes overblown, but I grew up on a farm. Sometimes after turning over cow patties looking for bugs, I'd find a carrot or pick some berries or something and eat it.

How nice! The fresh fruit and berries must have gone well with your bugs.

obDisclaimer: I live in the country now, and the kids and I love finding interesting and unusual bugs.