The 5-Second Rule.

1. MrPumpernickel
   May 23rd, 2007 at 8:46 pm

   Though it obviously depends on factors like how dirty the floor you’re dropping the food on is, what kind of bacteria, what kind of food is dropped and so forth. Not to mention that just “a floor” won’t be a proper analogue for all floors out there, the only way to really simulate it is to create a floor with an even amount of bacteria spread over the surface.

   Mythbusters did a test similar to the students but used an analogue and found out that it doesn’t really matter if it sits one second, five seconds or longer (within reasonable time range) when it comes to bacteria pick-up.

2. homero
   May 23rd, 2007 at 9:35 pm

   In Snopes they refer to another study with exacly the opposite conclusion:

   http://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/dropped.asp

   Saludos!

3. Aimee
   May 24th, 2007 at 10:51 am

   Mythbusters also studied this and came up with the opposite conclusion.

4. Rexmons
   May 24th, 2007 at 11:31 am

   What if you’re eating an apple and drop it right into a pile of dog crap?

5. Chef Mark
   May 24th, 2007 at 1:32 pm

   When I worked at a country club as a chef and a trainee asked if we had a “5 second rule”, I said “what is that?” He said, “you know, if you pick it up within 5 seconds you can still serve it.” I told him, “no, we have a ‘footprint rule’, if you can’t see footprints on it, go ahead and serve it.”

6. ted
   May 24th, 2007 at 5:40 pm

   Why do you have dog crap on your floor?
   Clean it up, you pig.

7. Bryan
   May 24th, 2007 at 6:24 pm

   What if you’re eating a big sloppy piece of pizza and you drop it in front of the urinal trough in the men’s room of Fenway Park?

8. Dusty
   May 25th, 2007 at 3:07 am

   If it were really safe, then you could also suck spilled liquids off the floor.

9. Alex
   May 25th, 2007 at 10:57 am

   Whatever you do, just don’t drop it on some ice.

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