Drop food on the floor? No worries. If you pick it up within three seconds of it hitting the ground, you’re good to go.
Right?
Sadly, wrong.
This is a polite fiction, so, famous it scored its own episode of Seinfeld (only they called it the five-second rule – but what’s two seconds between sit coms and viewers). The rule claims that edibles can’t be contaminated by floor/ground germs if it’s snatched up fast enough.
According to the New York Times, ‘Quick retrieval does mean fewer bacteria, but it’s no guarantee of safety.’
Jillian Clarke of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign found that 63% of the people knew the rule. She also found that a variety of foods were significantly contaminated by even brief exposure to a tile inoculated with E.coli. On the other hand, Clarke found food wasn't especially contaminated on public flooring. Clarke received the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize in public health (a parody award) for this work.
Clemson University conducted research on this as well. It may shock you that they found it’s probably more dangerous to eat food that you just dropped on your floor in the kitchen than on a footpath.
Bottom line: If it can be washed, wash it! If not … do you have a dog? Or a despised mother-in-law?
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