Is The 5-Second Rule Actually True?
Everyone at some point in their lives has dropped an item of food on the floor, picked it up, brushed it off, and eaten it. Most people call this the 5-second rule and surprisingly scientists have actually studied this before according to GoodNet.
Though this rule has not been studied much a 2016 study was done in Applied and Environmental Microbiology scientists from Rutgers University. This test was done to find out if food was safe to eat if it was picked up fast enough after falling on the floor or another gross surface.
In this study they found that the 5-second rule is scientifically a myth. This is because bacteria will spread to another surface immediately once touched. However, the amount of bacteria that’s transferred does depend on time, the moisture in the food item, and the surface the food fell on.
The more moist the food is, the more bacteria it will suck up. For example, watermelon picked up the most bacteria compared to the other foods in the test. The surface that the food falls on is also a factor in how much bacteria is transferred.
Shockingly, carpet is actually one of the most safe surfaces. It had a bacteria transfer rate that was a lot lower than tile, wood, and stainless steel. Time also changed the results, the longer the food sat on a surface, the more bacteria it had.