Five-second rule

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The five-second rule is

  1. a popular old wives' tale, in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and Japan, about eating food that has been dropped on the floor
  2. a rule of etiquette regarding occupying a seat which someone else has vacated

The exact number of seconds cited may differ depending on the person invoking the 'rule', or, more conveniently, following the expression n+1 where n represents the number of seconds the food is estimated to have been in contact with a given unclean surface.

Contents

[edit] Food rule

This rule applies to foods—particularly solid foods like cookies—that have fallen to the ground. The rule states that any germs that can be contracted by grounded food in under five seconds are of such a small amount that they will easily be destroyed by gastric acid, thus causing no harm to the body. The rule provides a convenient rationale for eating food off the floor, and is usually invoked when a group of people are present (as a polite fiction). Thus, for example, a person might drop a piece of candy and pick it up quickly, tell his friends "five second rule" and then eat the candy.

The five-second rule is seldom invoked in the case of sticky foods, such as ice cream, cold cuts, or jelly beans which have been moistened, particularly if visibly dirty. It is also rarely used in cases of toast landing buttered-side-down. The five-second rule is rarely applied to other people's food, although many instances have been documented. The origin of the five-second rule is unknown.

In reality, it is usually safe to eat food from a relatively clean floor (see "Research" below). However, the notion that germs from a dirty floor will not reach food for at least five seconds is false. For this purpose, cleanliness is a matter of bacterial or parasitic contamination rather than visible dirt, although the two often go together. For example, sick people attend hospitals, with the result that a hospital floor which has not been decontaminated properly can appear to be relatively clean, while actually being more contaminated than the dirty street outside.

No data exists for the use of the five-second rule in restaurant kitchens; nonetheless, the practice is thought to enjoy a frequent use by cooks in a hurry. Although the idea of the five-second rule being used in fine dining establishments as an official policy is absurd, its use is not limited to restaurants of lower standards.

[edit] Variations

The five second rule is sometimes called the three-second rule, seven-second rule, 10-second rule, or the 15-second rule, to some extent depending on locale or the quality of the food involved. For example, in American college dormitories the ten-second rule is often cited as the "drunk version" of the five-second rule. A common camp variation among young males is the 'get it before the bugs do' rule. Since bugs rarely charge after food, it is understood that it can sit there for a while.

In some instances, if the initial 5 seconds is exceeded, an additional 5 seconds will be administered, and so forth and so on until the dropped food item is retrieved and eaten.

[edit] Idioms

There are a number of idiomatic expressions used around the world when eating food which is in some way perceived as dirty or hazardous. Some examples:

  • O que não mata, engorda (Portuguese: "If it doesn't kill you, it's fattening").
  • Lo que no mata, engorda (Spanish-speaking countries: "What doesn't kill you, makes you fatter").
  • Poco veneno, no mata. (Spanish-speaking countries: "A little venom won't kill.").
  • Min ma joqtolx, isemmen (Malta: "If it doesn't kill you, it's fattening").
  • Quel che non strozza, ingrassa (Italian: "If it doesn't choke you, it's fattening").
  • Chancho limpio nunca engorda (Spanish-speaking countries: ("A clean pig never gets fat").
  • Dreck macht Speck (Southern Germany: A double-meaning, "Dirt makes bacon" or "Dirt makes fat").
  • Dreck reinigt den Magen (Germany: 'Dirt cleans the stomach').
  • Was Dich nicht umbringt, macht Dich härter (Germany: "If it doesn't kill you, it makes you tougher").
  • Lite skit rensar magen (Swedish: 'Some dirt cleans the stomach').
  • Zand schuurt de maag (Dutch: "Sand scours the stomach").
  • Baat het niet dan schaadt het niet (Dutch: "If it won't benefit you, it won't harm you either.").
  • 大菌吃小菌 (Chinese: "Big germs (people) eat small germs").
  • 不乾不淨,吃了沒病 (Chinese: "Occasional germs and dirt will keep you from getting sick.").
  • You'll eat a peck of dirt before you die
  • Зараза к заразе не пристанет or Zaraza k zaraze ne pristanet (Russian: "dirt won't do any harm to a dirty one").
  • Быстро поднятое не считается упавшим or Bystro podniatoje ne schitajetsa upavshim (Russian: "If something picked up quickly, it may not be counted to fall").
  • В лесу каждая соринка — витаминка, or V lesu kazhdaya sorinka — vitaminka ((Russian: "In a forest every speck of dirt is a vitamin pill")
  • Man skal have syv pund skidt om året (Denmark: "You need seven pounds of dirt a year").
  • God made dirt; dirt don't hurt.
  • God kissed it, the devil missed it.
  • A little floor spice makes every meal nice.
  • Ce qui ne nous tue pas nous rend plus fort (French: "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger").
  • Wat jou nie dood maak nie, maak jou sterker. Tensy dit jou dood maak (South Africa: "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, unless it kills you").
  • מה שלא הורג מחשל, מה שהורג מחשל את אמא (Hebrew: "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, what kills you makes your mother stronger"). The second appendage to the sentence probably stems from Israeli soldiers' black humor.

[edit] Research

A study on the five-second rule was performed by Jillian Clarke, a high school senior, during a seven-week internship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003. Clarke and a doctoral candidate named Meredith Agle took swab samples from various floors around campus. They then looked at the samples under a microscope and discovered that they did not contain significant amounts of bacteria. The conclusion was that in most cases, dry floors would be safe to eat from.

However, Clarke also wanted to test the five-second hypothesis in cases where the floor was known to be contaminated. She therefore spread E. coli on both rough and smooth floor tiles in a laboratory, placed pieces of gummy bears and cookies on the tiles for various amounts of time, and then examined the foods under the microscope. All the foods had a significant amount of bacteria after less than five seconds. Her findings therefore disproved the five-second rule.

In the course of her research, Clarke also conducted a survey to sample opinion on the five-second rule. She found that seventy percent of women and fifty-six percent of men were familiar with the five-second rule, and most utilized the rule in their decisions to eat food that had fallen on the floor. She also found that women were more likely than men to use the rule, and that cookies and candy were more likely to be picked up than broccoli or cauliflower.

Clarke's work won an Ig Nobel Prize for Public Health in 2004.

The five-second rule was also featured in an episode of the Discovery Channel series MythBusters. The results they got from their tests confirmed Clarke’s findings: time was not a factor when food is exposed to bacteria; even two seconds' exposure is more than enough time to contaminate it.

[edit] Seating rule

The rule is used at parties or other busy gatherings where seating is in short supply. If someone leaves their seat to visit the toilet or get a drink then the five second rule gives them five seconds' grace before their seat is claimed by someone else.

In some variations, a person vacating a seat may call "fives," giving them five minutes before the seat may be taken. If they have vacated the seat but forget to call fives, they are given five seconds to either invoke the rule or sit down again before the seat is considered able to be taken.

Another more permanent term is "Spotters" where a person will "call" the seat so that when they return it is not lost to another person. Other terms for this include calling "squats," "squatters", "shags," "spotback," "seat check," or "seat lock."

As with the food rule, the actual length of time used will vary. The most common times given are three and five seconds.

It is often considered that the person claiming the unoccupied seat has more "right" to it the longer they wait before sitting down. A person may stand guard in front of the seat for ten or fifteen seconds before sitting down, both ensuring that no-one steps in before them and that their claim cannot be disputed.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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