Is the 5-Second Rule True? By Jesse Cannone If you drop a piece of food on the floor, the “5-second rule” states that it’s safe to eat as long as you pick it up within 5 seconds. But is this rule, a favorite on schoolyards, really true? Most often, no. Bacteria can cling to your food nearly the second it hits the floor, so you risk eating bacteria (and potentially contracting a gastrointestinal disease) anytime you eat food off the floor. What Happens When Bologna is Dropped on the Floor for 5, 30 or 60 Seconds? Scientists have actually looked into the 5-second rule to see whether it’s fact or fiction. They put salmonella bacteria on wood, tile and carpet, then dropped bologna onto them for 5, 30 or 60 seconds. The length spent in contact with the surface had little impact on the amount of bacteria transferred, but the type of floor did. On wood and tile, more than 99% of the bacteria transferred to the bologna virtually on contact, while the carpet transferred far fewer bacteria.(1) The researchers noted: “S. [Salmonella] typhimurium can be transferred to the foods tested almost immediately on contact.” So will eating food off the floor make you sick? It just depends. You might get lucky and be just fine, or you might happen to pick up a bacterial, or other, infection (in the case of salmonella, for instance, just 10 bacteria can make you sick (2)). The Type of Food Might Matter … Foods with wet or sticky surfaces would be expected to pick up more bacteria than dry foods when they hit the floor, but researchers testing this matter revealed some surprising facts about which foods actually accumulate more bacteria. Five foods — bread with jam, cooked pasta, ham, a cookie and dried fruit — were dropped on the floor for 3, 5 or 10 seconds, then tested to determine their bacterial growth. The dried fruit and the cooked pasta fared the worst, with signs of klebsiella bacteria and yeast after just seconds on the floor. On the other hand, the following foods showed few signs of bacterial growth:(3) • Ham, due to its salt and nitrates, which prevent most bacterial growth • Cookies, due to their low water content and low adhesion ability • Bread and jam, due to its high sugar content, which is unlikely to support microbial growth “Eating processed food from the floor poses the lowest risk — one of its few benefits — given that it generally contains such high levels of sugar and salt,” Mail Online reported.(3) What are the Dirtiest Surfaces? If you want to hedge your bets when you drop your favorite chocolate bar, deciding whether or not to eat it, you might want to factor in where you drop it, as some surfaces tend to be “germier” than others. The following surfaces, for example, are all generally dirtier than the average toilet:(4) • Computer keyboard • Kitchen sink • Kitchen sponge • Cell phone • TV remote control • Carpets and rugs So, it’s not only the floor that’s an issue… if you drop a piece of food and it lands on your keyboard, your cell phone or your remote control, eating it might not be worth the risk. References 1. J Appl Microbiol. 2007 Apr;102(4):945-53. 2. NYTimes, February 28, 2011. 3. Mail Online, May 3, 2012. 4. Huffington Post, March 28, 2013. [Ed. Note: Jesse Cannone is a certified fitness trainer, rehabilitation specialist and co-founder of the Healthy Back Institute. For more information on how you can reduce or completely eliminate your pain naturally, click here
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 20:05:01 +0000
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