Five-second rule

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The five-second rule is a popular old wives' tale regarding the eating of food that has been dropped on the floor.

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[edit] Overview

The rule applies to foods—particularly solid foods—that have fallen to the ground. Normally, customary rules of hygiene dictate that food that has fallen to the ground should be discarded, in order to prevent ingestion of disease-causing agents acquired from the dirty surface. The rule states that if the food is picked up within five seconds, it can still be eaten.

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.

[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: "What doesn't kill you, makes you fatter").
  • 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.").
  • Dak li ma joqtolx, isemmen (Maltese: "What doesn't kill you, makes you fatter").
  • Quel che non ammazza, ingrassa (Italian: "What doesn't kill you, makes you fatter").
  • 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 nicht tötet, härtet ab (Germany: "What doesn't kill will toughen").
  • 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 bugs (people) eat small bugs").
  • 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 podniatoie ne schitaietsa upavshim (Russian: "Something picked up quickly is not counted as having fallen").
  • В лесу каждая соринка — витаминка, or V lesu kazhdaya sorinka — vitaminka (Russian: "In a forest every speck of dirt is a vitamin pill")
  • Больше грязи - ширше морда, or Bolshe gryazi - shyrshe morda (Russian: "The more dirt, the wider the mug").
  • Man skal have syv pund skidt om året (Denmark: "You need seven pounds of dirt a year").
  • God made dirt; dirt don't hurt, put it in your mouth and let it work.
  • God kissed it, the devil missed it.
  • A little floor spice makes every meal nice.
  • God bless the germs, the devil eats the worms
  • Ce qui ne nous tue pas nous rend plus fort (French: "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger").
  • Mikä ei tapa, vahvistaa (Finnish: "What doesn't kill, enstrengthens").
  • Wat jou nie dood maak nie, maak jou sterker. Tensy dit jou dood maak (Afrikaans: "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.
  • "it's just sprinkles". A direct reference to an Eddie Murphy joke in one of his earlier stand-up routines.
  • રામ કે ભૂત (Indian: "Ram or Ghost")

[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.

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. It should be noted that the test foods were damp cold cuts which are generally not covered under the 5 second rule.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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