Comments on: Trivia: The Five Seconds Rule

By: Sofar

Sofar — Sat, 24 May 2008 23:24:40 +0000

I’m going to go ahead and assume my floor is home to a minimum of salmenella and continue to eat stuff off of it no matter how long it’s been there. Unless it gets hair on it.

By: Larry

Larry — Sat, 24 May 2008 21:24:59 +0000

I heard that even ancient Romans had a version of the 5 second rule, except it was the 40 second rule back then. My how times have changed.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Sat, 24 May 2008 17:52:38 +0000

Another study found that people are very willing to follow the five second rule for candy, and quite unwilling for vegetables. It’s definitely psychological.

That said, it is actually good for your immune system to be challenged occasionally. They way when you DO eat contaminated lettuce, your immune system says “Big whoop, I’ve seen this before. No problem.” The chance of getting a major, knock-you-flat bacteria or virus from a surface you are familiar with (ie: not a public bathroom or cafeteria) is low.

By: violet

violet — Sat, 24 May 2008 10:53:19 +0000

Yeah, it’s not so much that people follow the 5 second rule because they believe bacteria can’t get into the food in under 5 seconds; it’s just an arbitrary length of time that we feel psychologically comfortable with. The difference between “I dropped it” and “I’m foraging for scraps on the floor.”

By: BikerRay

BikerRay — Sat, 24 May 2008 10:28:52 +0000

Some of the unhealthiest people I know are the most fanatical about cleanliness; their immune system never gets any practice.

By: Celeste

Celeste — Sat, 24 May 2008 08:20:43 +0000

Eh, you’re more likely to get salmonella from bagged lettuce than from a dropped Oreo. Live a little. =P

By: Barbwire

Barbwire — Sat, 24 May 2008 03:26:23 +0000

Some MIT students did a study, dropping things randomly in ordinary places. Most foods tested were ok after 5 or 10 seconds, and some were still fine after a much longer time on the floor/ground. I agree that placing something on a surface smeared with a concentration of bacteria will not produce accurate results.

By: Arjun

Arjun — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:14:38 +0000

Does anyone remember reading a number of studies somewheres which actually refuted the idea that bacteria transfer to food within a few seconds, and that it actually took really long?

By: kurt

kurt — Sat, 24 May 2008 00:26:08 +0000

As much as I respect High School science projects as proof of something, the method is flawed. actual floors do not have bacteria smeared on them (though any food residew left on the floor would be a fine place for bacteria to grow in the future).

By: CheeseDuck

CheeseDuck — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:26:15 +0000

I personally follow the As Long As It Isn’t Rotting Rule.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:11:33 +0000

I follow the three second rule

By: edselpdx

edselpdx — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:46:53 +0000

I would eat something after 5 seconds on my kitchen floor… but not a public bathroom floor…
Context is everything here. Even ingesting E. coli is not *necessarily* going to make you sick. And most environmental bacteria will not make you sick. Food is not sterile.

By: bean

bean — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:42:55 +0000

The problem with these studies, including Mythbusters, is that they don’t stay true to the scenario:

The five second rule is for food that has dropped from a height, not been placed carefully on top of a bacteria smear.

By: v.dog

v.dog — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:28:43 +0000

They could have just watched Mythbusters

By: Abbey

Abbey — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:24:24 +0000

But what are the odds of salmonella or E. coli being on the surface you happen to drop your food on?

There’s many factors that go into my decision to follow the 5 second rule or not. How hungry am I and how much do I like the food that I just dropped? What sort of surface did I drop it on and is it the last one? It’s a lot to think about in just 5 seconds.

By: Tempscire

Tempscire — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:19:04 +0000

Hmm. I thought there was another experiment that showed it depended on how moist the food was– an apple slice would pick up more bacteria than an M&M, say.