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It's funny. Laugh. Science

The 5-Second Rule Investigated 112

Posted by timothy from the thought-it-was-3-seconds dept.
j-beda writes "Here is an interesting report on a student project about the 5-second rule: ' If You Drop It, Should You Eat It? Scientists Weigh In on the 5-Second Rule.' 'According to Clarke, a senior at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, the 5-second rule dates back to the time of Genghis Khan, who first determined how long it was safe for food to remain on a floor when dropped there. Khan had slightly lower standards, however; he specified 12 hours, more or less.' How long can you safely leave dropped food on the floor before picking it up to eat? You know you've always wanted to have the definitive answer ..."
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The 5-Second Rule Investigated More

The 5-Second Rule Investigated

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  • First... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    5-second post.

  • Findings don't just apply to floors (Score:5, Funny)

    by tessaiga ( 697968 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:07PM (#6855549)

    Among Clarke's findings:

    --Cookies and candy are much more likely to be picked up and eaten than cauliflower or broccoli.

    I find the same thing applies to cookies and candies on plates too.

  • Depends on the floor (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bishop923 ( 109840 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:08PM (#6855552)
    I don't really follow the five second rule as much as I follow the "Would I want to eat off this surface at -any- time." rule. Something falls on the otherwise clean kitchen floor, I'll probably pick it up and eat it. Something falls on the utility room floor near the litter box... I'll probably shit-can it.

    Simple and apparently effective, at least I can't verify that I have gotten sick from it yet.

    • Not the floor (Score:5, Funny)

      by Alethes ( 533985 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:25PM (#6855669)
      It depends on much more important factors than the cleanliness of the floor:

      1) How hungry I am
      2) How good the food is
      3) How able I am to replace the food I dropped

      Health be damned!
      • That's what a co-surgical resident said after picking up and eating a Sweet-Tart that he just dropped off the Trauma room floor, in Newark NJ. I watched him for about 30 seconds, expecting him to start having instantaneous violent diarrhea and vomiting......But nothing happened.

        I guess he was right. I mean hey, look at dogs - they eat their own poop half the time and the worst thing that happens is that they barf up some grass that they just chewed.

        People are much more squeemish than they need to be.

      • Re:Not the floor (Score:3, Interesting)

        by nomel ( 244635 )
        For me, the stickyness of the food plays a big role also. If it's something like an M&M, chances are I'm going to eat it even after several minutes. If it's sweet and sour pork...that's a different matter.

    • Lousy Experiment (Score:5, Funny)

      by Red Pointy Tail ( 127601 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:45PM (#6855757)
      Taking samples of 1 square inch and monitoring it for microbes and spores? What a lousy experiment.

      What they should do is to hire 500 students to continually drop food and candy on the floor, pick it up again for consumption, and then monitor their well-being over the course of many weeks. Those wimps ;)
    • I totally agree. There MIGHT be some deadly germ anywhere, but probably not unless you are in a particularly dirty area where there is lots of food for bacteria. I eat wild plants like strawberrys without washing them, I'd eat a sandwich that fell on the lawn, or on a rock outside unless there was sand around. ( I hate eating sand... )

      As for the 5 second rule, who cares, once it falls on the surface, it's contaminated. But EVERYTHING in life is contaminated with something. Do I think I'll get sick fro

  • I use the five hair rule (Score:5, Funny)

    by karmavore ( 618727 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:09PM (#6855559)

    I have a dog, four cats a wife two daughters and a niece. If it comes off the ground with more than 5 hairs or if a hair is more than 5 inches it's no good.

  • Only One Suprise, Guess At The 12 Hour Rule (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:09PM (#6855561) Homepage
    Women are more likely than men to eat food that's been on the floor

    That's the one that really suprises me. The rest make sense in some way. This is the only one that I was suprised at. I would expect men would be more likely, equal at worst.

    As for the 12 hour rule, gross! Of course, they didn't know about bacteria or microbes, or such so I guess as far as they saw, there was no reason not to eat the food off then floor unless the floor was quite visibly dirty or some such. The 12 hour part probably has more to do with the food being found by ants and flies than anything else.

    • Re:Only One Suprise, Guess At The 12 Hour Rule (Score:4, Insightful)

      by skwirlmaster ( 555307 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:26PM (#6855672)
      Perhaps a "average" woman's floor is clearner than the average man's. The before mentioned would-I-eat-off-this-floor rule comes into play.
      My experience (at least in high school and college) that my buddies floors were quite unsanitariy.
    • Women are more likely than men to eat food that's been on the floor

      That mildly shocked me as well. I wonder what the margin was and how they arrived at these conclusions. It's pretty easy to imagine an 18 year old high school senior named Jillian adversly affecting the results of her experiements if they were conducted improperly. What I mean is, there's a lot of guys out there that wouldn't eat off any floor in front of a young attractive girl, especially when their behavior was the subject of said

  • 5 seconds? Disgusting (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dancin_Santa ( 265275 ) <DancinSanta@gmail.com> on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:10PM (#6855570) Journal
    Everyone knows it's the 3-second rule.

  • Mmm... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:14PM (#6855598)
    ...floor pie.
    • Marge: I just made this whole batch of christmas cookies, but since you're not believing in god I guess I'll just throw them away. *Bart walks in. Bart: ALRIGHT! Trash Cookies! *Bart starts eating cookies Bart: Uh oh, I think I just ate a dog food can lid.

  • Nasty.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by reaper20 ( 23396 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:14PM (#6855603) Homepage
    I worked as a line cook for 3 years during high school and another 4 while I attended college. I have _never_ met a cook that abided by this rule.

    You might want to, as much as we all now want to go BOFH on every person we know, but in the end, our family and friends eat there, and what's the extra 5 minutes?

    One thing I've learned from doing both tech and "hard labor" while I was younger is: professionalism is professionalism. That cook doesn't want you eating that nasty steak more than a professional programmer wants his unfinished project to be released early.
    • Where the hell did you work? The more usual experience is that when the big slab of meat falls to the ground, it's fine once the crushed roaches get scraped off.

      • Re:Nasty.... (Score:4, Funny)

        by sporktoast ( 246027 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @11:26PM (#6856046) Homepage
        Where the hell did you work?
        My experience was that when a slab of meat hit the floor, the call went out on the line to hold it for the next shmoe who asked for his steak to be well done.

        I am a vegetarian these days.

        • hold it for the next shmoe who asked for his steak to be well done.

          I actually don't see a problem with that, as long as it's re-cooked. If it was only on the floor for a second, you scrape the dirt off, and the recooking kills all the germs and bacteria.

        • Re:Nasty.... (Score:3, Funny)

          by linzeal ( 197905 )
          This is too true. We did the same thing for pizza that did not hit the floor, we had a sexy sounding girl convince drunk college students that they wanted whatever was ordered and could not be delivered or paid for.
    • Maybe not the cook, but definitely the manager ;) My grandma used to work at Quincy's and one time a customer was pissed off because his steak was a little too bloody for him. The manager threw the steak on the floor (which was so disgusting that they literally "skated" on it) and cooked his steak a little longer.

      Remember, if you want _clean_ food, don't piss off the manager!
    • I was a cook in the army. That's something else, of course. If something fell on the floor, it went to the Officers' Mess (pun not intended, although it could have been). Some of those morons actually believed they got finer food than the lowly foot soldiers, since they, after all, were Officers. Actually, the food was far better in the army than it was at home (and better than it is in your home, too!), so we never had any complaints. And if we spilled soup, we through it away. Yes, we showed the officers
      • nitpick... threw not through. We threw it away.
        • Heh, sorry. I've got a terrible flu. It's a mistake I normally wouldn't do, since English is only my second language (I think it's easier to make that kind of mistake for someone who learnt English speech before writing -- take for instance all those who write 'Here, here!' when they obviously mean 'Hear, hear!'; those words, like 'through' and 'threw' are pronounced very differently in my native language (Norwegian)).
    • I admit I did my time at good 'ole Mcidees in my HS days. Meat hit the floor - it was discarded. My point is more disgusting than the 5 Sec Rule. Next to watch is HOW long those Bic Macs stay in the warmer. 10 minutes is the time table, but we have all had 1 burger in our life where a day old dried out one shows up our to go bag. HINT: Special Order all your fast food :o)

  • Student life (Score:3, Funny)

    by E_elven ( 600520 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:15PM (#6855610) Journal
    I'd be happy to eat off the floor, if I had a floor or food, you insensitive clod!

  • More importantly, (Score:5, Interesting)

    by schmaltz ( 70977 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:20PM (#6855638)
    If somebody else is there and witnesses the food item's descent and impact, does that affect your decisionmaking, regardless of 5 seconds or 12 hours?
    • With the women I have been dating let's see.

      Lori-stunted intellectual (marijuanna impaired)
      She would fall to the floor and eat it off it, than giggle like a mad genius.

      Cathy-Super mother of 2 with a penchant for eating something new every time I saw her.
      She would shit can it, and than drive 20 miles to an obscure ethnic place and get something else.

      Jennifer-Meth Addict (nuf said)
      She would use it as an excuse not to eat.

      Joy-Current love of my life
      I would not let her eat it, I might though. I

    • I would think so. It could even affect your actual food consumption- not everyone is going to wait 12 hours.
  • The minute something falls on the floor, it's no longer suitable eating material in my opinion. Do you know how many bacteria, yeast, and fungus are on the floor? Your really eating foot-fungus when you eat something that just fell on the floor. Yuck yuck yuck.

    • Re:um, yuck (Score:5, Informative)

      by pauljlucas ( 529435 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:42PM (#6855744) Homepage Journal
      Do you know how many bacteria, yeast, and fungus are on the floor? Your really eating foot-fungus when you eat something that just fell on the floor.
      Do you know how many bacteria, yeast, and fungus, not to mention dried snot from people wiping their noses, are on handrails, doornobs, and kitchen counters? You're really just eating everything that hands have touched (unless you are religious about washing your hands before eating, and not touching anything else while eating).
      • and PS, I wash my hands with 70% Ethanol (which is ideal for sterilization) before I prepare food or eat.
        • I wash my hands with 70% Ethanol (which is ideal for sterilization) before I prepare food or eat.
          Don't forget to wash your hands again after you grab the salt shaker or pepper mill after lots of other people have grabbed it.
          • since there are these modern things called *forks* and *knives*. And since I eat at home, and don't eat the sorry excuse for food they serve at fast-food restuarants.
      • Good point. People's hands are filthy--usually much filthier than floors. That's is the main reason this stuff [cnn.com] seems to keep happening.

      • >>You're really just eating everything that hands have touched.

        I guess they haven't discovered cutlery in your part of the world yet
        • I guess they haven't discovered cutlery in your part of the world yet
          Most people, probably yourself included, eat hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, french fries, appetizers in general, and lots of other finger-food with (guess what) your fingers.

          • My comment was intended as a joke (everyone eats with their fingers occasionally), but in fact you've just proved my point. You regard fast food, eaten with your fingers, as the norm. I regard it as the exception, to be done only when there's no alternative. You should get out of America more. There are some cultures where eating anything with your fingers is taboo - I remember being amazed seeing Chinese eat shell & eat a crab entirely using chopstick, when it would be far easier to use fingers.

            • You regard fast food, eaten with your fingers, as the norm.

              And you didn't heed my sig. I never wrote that and you incorrectly assumed it. I merely gave fast-food examples that Joe Sixpack could relate to. Most people eat brie or caviar (on crackers) with their fingers as well.

              There are some cultures where eating anything with your fingers is taboo

              That doesn't make it either right, practical, or rational.

              I remember being amazed seeing Chinese eat shell & eat a crab entirely using chopstick

              • And you didn't heed my sig. I never wrote that and you incorrectly assumed it.

                You wrote that "most people" eat such foods with their fingers. To me that's the same as writing that you regard it as normal, since "normal" is pretty much defined as that which most people do. Are you suggesting that if you wrote "I ate a hamburger today", I would be wrong to assume or infer that you're not a vegetarian?

                I merely gave fast-food examples that Joe Sixpack could relate to.

                I'm touched by your concern that

    • Re:um, yuck (Score:5, Funny)

      by Alizarin Erythrosin ( 457981 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:52PM (#6855795)
      That would explain this case of athlete's stomach...

    • Re:um, yuck (Score:5, Informative)

      by vericgar ( 627150 ) on Tuesday September 02, 2003 @10:54PM (#6855821) Homepage
      Actually, if you had read the article, they were surprised at how little of that stuff really was on the floor....
    • personally it's the hair and dust that bothers me.

      yuck..

      but then again.. at parts of my tables theres the same problem.

    • Well, just take a look at your cat over there licking itself "clean"... Cat's aren't clean... they are just covered in cat spit... With that said, my cat curls up with my happily ever night.
    • Do you know how many bacteria, yeast, and fungus are on the floor? Your really eating foot-fungus when you eat something that just fell on the floor. Yuck yuck yuck.

      Did you know the floor has fewer bacteria, yeasts and fungi than the inside of your mouth?

      Did you know urine from a healthy human has less bacteria, yeasts and fungi than the inside of your mouth?

      Did you know urine from a healthy human has antibiotic and antifungal properties and can be used to cure foot fungus?

      Did you know one of the cause
      • Won't kill you, and won't even harm you. However, most people are disgusted by it and won't do it. Simply knowing facts does not make something that is disgusting somehow appealing. For example, the cartiledge on steak is not fat, and is hardly harmful to you; however, it is still disgusting.

    • I've noticed that people who are excessively clean tend to actually get sick more often than people who just don't care. Your body is "designed" (if I may take such a liberty) to deal with bacteria in a fairly efficient way.

      In the same way, people that try to avoid getting sick when the latest round of colds comes around is only making it worse for themselves. If you can catch a cold closely to the time after you got sick the last time, you probably won't even notice it, but it's that much longer until

  • Deep Fry It (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Samus ( 1382 )
    In some resturaunts if it falls on the floor it just gets deep fried for a few seconds. I think you can deep fry just about anything...

  • Haiku (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    When I drop my meat
    Bacteria get to eat
    And I move to pie
  • I just had this happen yesterday. Man I should have subscribed or sommething because I could have sworn the rule was 10 seconds.
    • I abide by the 10 minute rule. Not as long as 12 hours, but if something hits the floor it's going to be as dirty in 5 seconds as it will be in 10 minutes.
      • While at university, my roommates and I had a variation of this rule as well. "Can you remember when it hit the floor? Yes? Okay, eat it."

        I contest that eating non-lethal doses of contaminants has increased my resistance to them. I tell myself that that's why my mum let me eat dirt as a kid.

  • bacteria (Score:2, Informative)

    by schnits0r ( 633893 )
    People think this whole bacteria on the floor tihng is disgusting. We have stomach acid, and various immune devices in our bodies. I'm not worried about properly cooked food hitting the ground. IT gives my immune system a work out. It's eat something that fell out of my hands at a sidewalk cafe in Bangeledesh!
    • I think it's sometimes overblown, but I grew up on a farm. Sometimes after turning over cow patties looking for bugs, I'd find a carrot or pick some berries or something and eat it. If I had bothered to wash my hands, it was in the same pond the cows and other animals drank from and pissed in. I'm betting not only did it 'cure' me of the croup, but it also made me resistant later on.

      On the other hand, now if food hits the floor, or even the counter sometimes, I just let the dogs have it, unless it's someth

  • Especially in Chem Lab (Score:3, Funny)

    by luekj ( 692478 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2003 @12:01AM (#6856263) Journal
    I mean, five seconds in Hydrochloric acid. That will just make it even cleaner, right?

    Or at least take some of the load off my poor stomach.....

  • so how long does it take? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mr.Coffee ( 168480 ) * <rhysfeezled@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Wednesday September 03, 2003 @12:16AM (#6856346) Homepage
    I , for one, am outraged! the article stated that the E.coli bacteria transferred to the gummy bears in 5 seconds, but they didn't do any testing to see what the minimal time for safety was. how am i supposed to know how long that cookie is still good for?

  • fourty-one fourty (Score:2, Insightful)

    by annisette ( 682090 )
    At or below 40 degrees F and at or above 140 degrees F is considered to be the safe zone for storing or serving food items, safe from creating a growth medium for germs and bacteria. the inbetween temps F is the danger zone for growth of said critters. This is the standard for food safty in the hospitality industry. So go figure, what was the temp of the food dropped and the temp of what it was dropped on. but then only 5 seconds, well, more or less absolute rejection would be if it was dropped on the be

  • I'm stickin with it (Score:5, Funny)

    by Stubtify ( 610318 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2003 @12:23AM (#6856386)
    if you have e. coli on your floors the 5 second rule is the least of your worries.
    • You have e.coli in your intestines, are you going to worry about that too?

      Escherisha Coli is considered part of normal gut flora (Coli - refers to where it was first 'discovered' - the human colon). Some variants of e.coli are harmful though - but these are normally outcompeted by the usually benign resident population of e.coli.

      If you don't have a resident population of e.coli - you in trouble.
      • No, but E. Coli is supposed to be in your intestine. When it gets out, it can be really harmful. I'm not sure, but I think it can get out by feces. So, it would be undoubtably bad if your floor is covered in feces, and you probably wouldn't eat something on that floor, 5 second rule or not.
      • You have e.coli in your intestines, are you going to worry about that too?

        O.K. you got me there. I promise if I drop a cookie into my intestine, I won't be putting it back into my mouth.

        No matter what

  • 5 second rule? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Kowh ( 61371 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2003 @02:09AM (#6856751) Homepage Journal
    The five second rule is stricted enforced around here. In fact, usually we don't even get all five seconds. Any dropped food instantly becomes property of the canine clean-up service, and they don't take kindly to "take-backs".

    Or rather they do, but they look at you with puppy dog eyes and you're forced to drop the food again.
  • I thought that the five second rule only applied to silverware. I.E. one is setting 500 tables for a social function and drops a fork, does one pick it up and put it at a place setting. You're damned right they do! Sometimes it gets wiped off with a damp napkin first, but not always!
  • What about coffee? Depending on my craving, it may have been on the floor for several minutes. After that, it begins to dry out and becomes solid anyway (after a time). Then the 5 second rule applies again...

    BTW, I (and my co-worker) are two of those 44% that have never heard of that rule before.

  • Depends on where you stand (Score:4, Funny)

    by tsa ( 15680 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2003 @05:47AM (#6857241) Homepage
    If you stand in the middle of a busy highway then 5 seconds might be way too long.

  • Not true about Genghis Khan (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mnmn ( 145599 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2003 @09:25AM (#6858161) Homepage
    As a direct descendent, I second that claim about Genghis Khan's rule. It is really 0 seconds here. My grandmother (born in the 1920s) and other elders in the tribal areas never advise eating anything that has been dropped on the ground. An exception is where you can slice off the section of the food that has touched the ground or peel it off.

    In Hazarajat part of Afghanistan, Mongols have remained rather unchanged over the centuries (having descended from Genghis's army), including culture, race and a large part of the language. It is still quite possible this 'rule' changed over time.
  • the 5 second rule means is it takes longer than 5 seconds to make it, serve it anyways.

  • Stinky Meat (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jbarr ( 2233 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2003 @11:36AM (#6859310) Homepage
    For a truely (almost) scientific look at what happens when you leave food out, check out the Stinky Meat Project [thespark.com].

    Not for the faint of heart...
  • ...the 5 (or 10) second rule is interpreted as "after 5 seconds at rest on the floor, dropped food becomes fair game for whoever may claim it." E.G., drop a donut, and you have 5 seconds to pick it up before others assume that you don't want it. Have I been living a lie?
  • Homer's Odyssey, I believe, mentions in passing that dropped food was defiled food. I imagine you could be executed for reusing dropped food (if a servant) or become shunned or exiled if a member of the upper class. Either seems like an appropriate punishment to me:)
  • Haven't they also found that people who were exposed to more bacteria in growing up tend not to grow up into the people with 50 life-threatening allergies?

    Maybe eating the bacteria is a good thing, folks. That which does not kill you makes you stronger...
  • If you eat something off the floor, you're more likely to get a case of foot-herpes in the mouth than anything else. I'd watch out.
  • If it's fallen on the floor, don't eat it. It's not even solely about food safety or germs. It's about not doing disgusting things in front of other people.
  • This 5 second rule is unknown where I live (France) If you drop food on the floor you just got to cook something else and never pick it back to eat it.

    Is this an american/english rule or is it only unknown in France ?

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