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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 ..."
I worked as a line cook for 3 years during high school and another 4 while I attended college. I have _never_ met a cook that abided by this rule.
You might want to, as much as we all now want to go BOFH on every person we know, but in the end, our family and friends eat there, and what's the extra 5 minutes?
One thing I've learned from doing both tech and "hard labor" while I was younger is: professionalism is professionalism. That cook doesn't want you eating that nasty steak more than a professional programmer wants his unfinished project to be released early.
Perhaps a "average" woman's floor is clearner than the average man's. The before mentioned would-I-eat-off-this-floor rule comes into play.
My experience (at least in high school and college) that my buddies floors were quite unsanitariy.
My inner self is ineffable, so don't eff with me.
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...
In Republican America phones tap you.
Women are more likely than men to eat food that's been on the floor
That mildly shocked me as well. I wonder what the margin was and how they arrived at these conclusions. It's pretty easy to imagine an 18 year old high school senior named Jillian adversly affecting the results of her experiements if they were conducted improperly. What I mean is, there's a lot of guys out there that wouldn't eat off any floor in front of a young attractive girl, especially when their behavior was the subject of said study.
Then again, it might make sense in that men are generally less familiar with the preparation of food than women generally are. Men might simply be more naive with respect to what happens to food before they eat it, and therefore afford it a higher level of purity than it actually has. Also, of the men and women I know, men are more likely to purchase prepackaged foods like tv dinners or the ever glorious hot pockets. There is a certain notion of sterility in a plastic wrapped entree that contact with the floor negates.
I abide by the 10 minute rule. Not as long as 12 hours, but if something hits the floor it's going to be as dirty in 5 seconds as it will be in 10 minutes.
At or below 40 degrees F and at or above 140 degrees F is considered to be the safe zone for storing or serving food items, safe from creating a growth medium for germs and bacteria. the inbetween temps F is the danger zone for growth of said critters. This is the standard for food safty in the hospitality industry. So go figure, what was the temp of the food dropped and the temp of what it was dropped on. but then only 5 seconds, well, more or less absolute rejection would be if it was dropped on the beach.
I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
For a truely (almost) scientific look at what happens when you leave food out, check out the Stinky Meat Project.
Not for the faint of heart...
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
As for the 5 second rule, who cares, once it falls on the surface, it's contaminated. But EVERYTHING in life is contaminated with something. Do I think I'll get sick from it? Depends on the surface...
I've eaten cold pizza from a box on my counter 36 or more hours since buying it. The same beer that makes one forget to refrigerate their pizza tends to kill anything that may have grown on it in the meantime if drunk at the same time the leftovers are consumed. I'm fairly confident that floor microbes are suceptible to beer sterilization as well.
Dog slobber is harmless too, unless you just caught them eating out of the cat box and can smell it on their breath. Potato chips are fine after the dog sniffed them but turned up his nose. Dog tongues are useful wound cleansers and scab abraiders too. Skin you knee? It'll heal twice as fast and with less scarring if you let your dog lick off the scab every day or every other day.
Brie that has been sitting in the window sill for days and is growing white fur is an unknown. I ate some of that assuming the white fur was just more of the 'crust' and did get mildly sick, though it may have been from other causes.
I've heard that green bread is OK to eat. Have accidentally eaten moldy bread. It tasted so gross I almost puked on the spot. No ill affects afterward though.
Olives, black and green, as well as pickles are good to eat when sitting out for days in a bowl if there is liquid in the bowl. Olives, are good even if there is no liquid as they shrivel and dry to chewy raisin like things. Dried pickles sound too gross to try.
Cheetos. I never eat cheeze puffs until they are good and stale. MMMMMM chewy like real cheeze instead of all crunchy and gross..
Eat at Joe's.