Is the '5 Second Rule' Legit?

Sometimes, life presents us with unbearable dilemmas—like when you drop your last cookie on the kitchen floor. Do you quickly pick it up and eat it? Does eating a cookie off the floor make you a savage? When you drop a piece of food on the ground, how much time do you really have before it becomes contaminated?

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[defish]

drops food

GERMS: FOOD!!
GERM KING: HOLD! WE MUST WAIT 5 SECONDS

[JaeEnceeti]

If you drop your cookie the moment daylight savings is over you'll have an hour and five seconds to pick it up. No worries guys!!

[AONE_.]

1:53 That hurt internally. I can totally relate.

[Andytlp]

depends on the food.. and what floor. outside or home. But if were talking plain bacteria, food would be long digested before enough of them multiplied.. takes hours. id be more worried about parasites/chemicals.

[armoredsushi]

God made dirt, but the dirt don't hurt. XD

[Toxicclay]

This video is incorrect, that cookie has sugar in it and will therefore attract bacteria the same as a wet object. The reason many don't like eating wet objects off the ground is because of the fact that no one wants macros on it, such as hair or dirt. I believe vsauce covered this as well.

[bcgrote]

It does also depend on the surface cleanliness. If you know your kitchen floor hasn't been mopped in.... a while, you might want to either count faster or bypass a dropped treat.
Mythbusters tried this one and did find a LOT of bacterial growth, but they did use the gel plates and kinda rubbed them around on the surface rather than test a cookie.

[aleenvanmandy]

Yeah sure but what if you drop it in a box of bacteria

[stormingdoggo]

Phew I thought they would say NO NO ITS NOT LEGIT! Luckily, anytime I drop a cookie I quickly get it like in 0 seconds 😊

[rickguy]

Did anyone else get the urge to start eating cookies off the floor?

[Limegirl-evti]

Idgaf on how long that cookie is on the ground, IMMA STILL EAT DAT COOKIE

[CreeperCompany]

I love Mark Rober! His YouTube channel is awesome!

[nathaniel]

Me: Drops cookie on floor.

Bacteria: Hold up niggas let’s chill. 1... 2... 3.... 5!

[flowers]

I honestly use the 5 second rule as an excuse to eat food that someone dropped on the floor. I don't care if food is on the floor, as long as it's fine, I'll eat it.

[etmax]

In my opinion there are 2 answers to this depending on what the food falls on.

If it falls on a dry floor that only had a few germs per square mm then while the food will have lots of germs if you ate it the germ count would be too low to cause disease. If the food fell on say some dog pooh then there would be enough germs transferred to cause disease even if eaten immediately.

[burgershot]

Cookiegiver: FREE COOKIES EVERYONE!

CookieMonster: WHERE ARE THE COOKIES (eats the cookies in one gulp)

[groszak]

Thanks for this answer. In another video it says that bacteria get into food instantly, but I wanted a health point of view, not a theoretical point of view.

[apha]

0:44 Passerbys, "What did he do to those cookies ? I don't want one."

[counter-attack]

Other countries: 5 seconds
My country: 5 minutes

[Sethpelepchuk]

So does it really depend if the food is sticky and what the ground is?