Is there a scientific basis for "5 second rule" OK if you eat food right away?

ByBruce Tuten

When dropping food on the floor, there are many people who have heard the mystery rules that they can eat saying "safe within 5 seconds!" Rutgers University studied whether there is a scientific basis for this "5 second rule".

Longer Contact Times Increase Cross-Contamination of Enterobacter aerogenes from Surfaces to Food
http://aem.asm.org/content/early/2016/08/15/AEM.01838-16


It's official: The five-second rule is down for the count | Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/09/its-official-the-five-second-rule-is-down-for-the-count/

Rutgers University combines conditions such as several floorings, several kinds of foods, floor contamination conditions, time such as food touches the floor, and investigates whether foods dropped on the floor can be safely eaten if picked up within 5 seconds I did a research. The research team carried out a technique of dropping bread · gumi with watermelon · pan · butter from stainless steel · wood · ceramic tile · carpet from a height of 12.5 cm. Each floor is coated with cultured intestinal bacteria.

The falling food was left on the floor at different times of 1 second, 5 seconds, 30 seconds, and 300 seconds, and data was taken repeatedly for each combination 20 times. Analysis of 2560 verifications revealed that the bacterial transfer rate varies depending on each combination. Ceramic tiles and stainless steel are attached most quickly, wood is replaced by food, and carpet was the one that bacteria were difficult to move.

These data show that the surface of the food fallen on the floor is contaminated within 5 seconds. It was found that foods moistened on the surface like watermelon are most likely to be infiltrated by bacteria and contaminated within 1 second, not by carpet, except for carpets. On the other hand, the combination that was hardest to be polluted was "Gumi that fell to the carpet", but the researchers have concluded that even this combination "is not enough to prove the safety of the 5 second rule" .

ByRiley Kaminer

Food scientists Robin Miranda and Donald Schaffner who participated in the study said, "Our data showed that more contact bacteria adhere to food as contact time is longer," 5 Second rule "is a rule that does not work, but it is better than picking it up at least after 10 seconds and eating it.