5-second rule put to rest

[Fat Guy]

Science Q&A piece in the New York Times today by C. Claiborne Ray debunking the "5-second rule." Turns out, almost all the bacteria get on the food the second it hits the floor, and extra time on the floor makes little difference. Yes, it has actually been studied.

[gfweb]

A silly show that was on food network a few years ago did the same sort of thing. Makes sense.

[Chris Amirault]

I've always wondered who was measuring the speeds of the bacteria that were running from floor to cookie.

[mkayahara]

As often seems to happen, McGee got there first: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/dining/09curi.html

Edit: Err... not to say that he did the research, but he did report the findings. Nearly four years ago.

Edited March 1, 2011 by mkayahara (log)

[Dignan]

Mythbusters did it too.

[Mjx]

I didn't hear about this one until I was in my twenties, and then I just thought it was a humorous reference to an old-wives tale, since all it takes is a moment's contact to distribute bacteria from one agar slab to another; did it dozens of times in labs.

This is going to make it sound like I've lived my entire life in a cave, but does anyone actually believe in the '5-second rule'?

[Simon_S]

I don't think anyone actually believes in it per se, but it's a useful enough rule in the sense that it's unlikely anyone will have walked on the item in question within 5 seconds.

I follow it religiously!

[emannths]

And back in 2003, another group looked at it. This one was awarded the Ig Nobel prize in Public Health in 2004. The Ig Nobel people have noticed the tendency for 5-second-rule researchers to be unaware of past work, which is somewhat amusing.

Edited March 1, 2011 by emannths (log)

[vloglady]

"Food Detectives" with Ted Allen did it a few years ago. Turns out the kind/type of food dropped played a major role in the amount of bacteria it picked up. If you dropped something porous, like a hotdog or hamburger, it picked up more bacteria than say a hard cookie or roll.

You could always do what grandmothers did, "Kiss it up to God".

Edited March 1, 2011 by vloglady (log)

[Edward J]

Been fighting this one for almost 20 years now.

When an employee comes up with this one, I hold my breath and keep calm, then ask them a simple question:

"A riddle for you, when you dive into a swimming pool, what's the very first thing you do?

Ya get wet, that's what you do. The first thing a piece of food does when it hits the ground is pick up bacteria. Never let me hear you with that line of garbage again."

[rebecca]

like everything else in life, it is a spectrum. the 5 second rule is true for some very clean surfaces and, like vloglady said, non-porous material. my favorite statistic that i have heard is that there is even a window of time in which you could pick food off a port-o-potty floor without accumulating any bacteria. however, the speed necessary to get your hand down there in time are so extreme that it would burn you like any object falling to earth from outerspace... very VERY fast

[emannths]

By the way, I find it interesting that FG's link suggests that using the 5-second-rule exposes you to risk of salmonella poisoning. While salmonella could survive on the floor, it's MUCH more likely to be present on surfaces that food often touches^{[citation needed]}--your counter, cutting boards, dish towels, etc. IMHO, if you're worried about getting salmonella from your floor, you'd better be spraying down your counters with bleach after every meal.

Now, if the article had used a soil-borne disease, maybe the worry is not so misplaced...

[Andrew Fenton]

I prefer to look at the half-full glass (of bacteria.) Since there's nothing special about the 5-second limit, it means I might as well eat food that has been lying on the floor for five seconds... ten... thirty... ten minutes, even. Why, the floor is my buffet!

[scubadoo97]

I've always believed eating a little dirt keep the immune system active and gives it something to work on instead of me.

[gfweb]

Cheese is full of bugs. In fact the same ones that cause acne are part of what makes cheddar.

Ewww.

[Edward J]

For me it's no laughing matter. I apprenticed under a very old school Chef, so old school that he insisted on "dusting" the floor with sawdust every shift (Old school double shifts) and at the end of the shift the sawdust swept up, thrown out, and new applied.

Once had an employee who I couldn't get through to. Finally I frogged-marched him to the men's room, instructed him to step in the puddle under the urinal, marched him back into the kitchen, told him to step back one step, dropped an end slice of bread where his foot was, and dared him to eat it. Finally got through to him.

[JeanneCake]

For me it's no laughing matter. I apprenticed under a very old school Chef, so old school that he insisted on "dusting" the floor with sawdust every shift (Old school double shifts) and at the end of the shift the sawdust swept up, thrown out, and new applied.

I have been in food service only 10 years so I am still learning; what was the rationale behind using sawdust on the floor?

When I was a child, I remember some of the supermarkets my mom took me to had a sawdust kind of stuff on the floor but I never knew why and have never seen it since.

[Edward J]

The sawdust soaked up spills and trapped dirt, some butchers used this system up until the 90's. It also made the floor slippery.....