We all live by the ‘five second rule’ when it comes to dropping food on the floor. At least, team lovefood does. But scary new statistics suggest that it’s not such a sound idea after all…
Many a slice of buttered toast has been saved by the five second rule (loosely translated into a ‘ten second rule’ by some). This deems that a dropped item of food can still be eaten, as long as you pick it up off the floor before five seconds elapses.
But now a BBC-led investigation has threatened to disprove this. One of their news reporters recently visited Queen Mary University of London, where Dr Ronald Cutler analysed pizza (dropped on the kitchen floor), butter side down toast (dropped on a carpet) and an apple (dropped on the street) in his laboratory, all of which had been on the floor for five seconds.
The results
The day after the food items were dropped, all three showed themselves to be covered in bacteria – even the pizza that had only touched the kitchen floor had evidence of ‘faecal bacteria’ on it. “I certainly wouldn’t eat it,” said Dr Cutler in the BBC video. In fact, even food which had been dropped on the floor and immediately picked up was still found to be teeming in bacteria.
“So the moral of the story is,” says BBC reporter Sophie van Brugen, “if you drop it – chuck it!”
But then again, isn’t a little bit of dirty food supposed to be good for us? If we avoided everyday bacteria at all costs, wouldn’t it make us more susceptible to disease?
What do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments box below.
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