Is the 5 second rule true?

Question

If you drop something on the floor and pick it up within five seconds is it really ok to eat it?

Seems gross I know, I'm just curious about how long it takes for germs to move from the floor to the food.

Answer 1

Of course not.  If you drop a piece of food in pool of bleach on the floor for 4 secs you think it's ok to eat?   There's good questions and then there's dumb questions.  Hopefully you know which one you asked.

Answer 2

Actually, it is true, and responsible people have tested it.  Something relatively hard picks up few bacteria within 5 seconds.  Bread that's buttered or soaked in gravy picks them up almost instantly.  Drop bread on a wet floor, and it will pick up water (including bacteria) almost instantly.  Dry hard candy picks up very few, even after minutes.

Emphasize the strength of your immune system rather than trying to avoid all bacteria.

Answer 3

The amount of time the food stays on the floor makes basically no difference at all, according to a study by Clemson University.

There is also a Mythbusters episode that featured the "case". They also found out that time scales (i.e.: if you bent the 5-second rule to 2 or 6 seconds) made no difference at all in the number of bacteria; instead, moisture of food, surface geometry of food, and location it dropped on, mattered in the number of bacteria present on it.

Edit for edit answer: The origins of the 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."

Answer 4

yes i agree with 1st answer

Answer 5

No, that rule is not true because there is no point to it. We are putting germs on our food as soon as we touch it. There are some germs on your plate, on your utensils. There are germs everywhere and on everything. We just cant see them and most of them are harmless anyways.

Whoever made that rule up just wanted to make themselves feel better about eating dropped food.

Answer 6

not true at all. germs will still be on it no matter how long it is on the ground

Answer 7

i don't know..if i drop it i leave it there and go get more

edit: i think it depends where you drop it if you drop it outside (you know in dirt and all that) i wouldn't pick it back up but if its in a semi-clean place such as your kitchen floor or something then it would be ok

but I think either way its still dirty and will have germs on it no matter how long its there