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

Depends on the floor

[Bishop923]

I don't really follow the five second rule as much as I follow the "Would I want to eat off this surface at -any- time." rule. Something falls on the otherwise clean kitchen floor, I'll probably pick it up and eat it. Something falls on the utility room floor near the litter box... I'll probably shit-can it.

Simple and apparently effective, at least I can't verify that I have gotten sick from it yet.

Only One Suprise, Guess At The 12 Hour Rule

[MBCook]

Women are more likely than men to eat food that's been on the floor

That's the one that really suprises me. The rest make sense in some way. This is the only one that I was suprised at. I would expect men would be more likely, equal at worst.

As for the 12 hour rule, gross! Of course, they didn't know about bacteria or microbes, or such so I guess as far as they saw, there was no reason not to eat the food off then floor unless the floor was quite visibly dirty or some such. The 12 hour part probably has more to do with the food being found by ants and flies than anything else.

More importantly,

[schmaltz]

If somebody else is there and witnesses the food item's descent and impact, does that affect your decisionmaking, regardless of 5 seconds or 12 hours?

Not true about Genghis Khan

[mnmn]

As a direct descendent, I second that claim about Genghis Khan's rule. It is really 0 seconds here. My grandmother (born in the 1920s) and other elders in the tribal areas never advise eating anything that has been dropped on the ground. An exception is where you can slice off the section of the food that has touched the ground or peel it off.

In Hazarajat part of Afghanistan, Mongols have remained rather unchanged over the centuries (having descended from Genghis's army), including culture, race and a large part of the language. It is still quite possible this 'rule' changed over time.

Re:Not the floor

[nomel]

For me, the stickyness of the food plays a big role also. If it's something like an M&M, chances are I'm going to eat it even after several minutes. If it's sweet and sour pork...that's a different matter.