Eating off the floor: what is that five-second rule actually about?
Every now and then, a slice of cucumber rolls off the cutting board onto the floor while I’m chopping. Thanks to the famous ‘five-second rule’, it ends up in the salad more often than in the bin. Because bacteria can’t possibly strike in that short time, or so I’ve always been told. But is that actually true?
How the five-second rule came about
Julia Child, the best-known American TV chef of the 1960s, is said to have been the reason the five-second rule came into existence. During her cooking show The French Chef, Julia dropped a potato pancake on the floor, then quickly put it back in the pan. She told her viewers that if you drop something and pick it up quickly, you can simply use it. After all, no one would have seen it or noticed anything later…
The research
Scientist Paul Dawson decided to investigate whether the five-second rule was actually true by examining whether food would indeed have fewer bacteria on it if it had only been on the floor for five seconds. For his study, he placed salmonella bacteria on different types of surfaces. Five minutes later, he put a piece of bread or a slice of luncheon meat on them and left it there for 5, 30 or 60 seconds. He then repeated this, but left the food there for 2, 4 and 24 hours to measure the difference in bacteria.
The conclusion
What did he find? The number of bacteria on each piece of food was the same. Whether it had been on the salmonella-covered surface for 5 seconds or 4 hours. So that five-second rule? You can take it a little further; even that slice of cucumber you pick up after 5 seconds can still be tossed into your salad with peace of mind. As long as eating off the floor is something you’re comfortable doing at home.
But….
That said, you’re only really on the safe side if you drop your cucumber on a dry surface. It’s not so much how long it lies on the floor that matters, but what kind of floor it lands on. You’re better off dropping your cucumber on carpet than on a wet surface. As long as your cucumber falls onto a dry surface, it will have fewer bacteria on it than if it lands on a wet surface.
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