Why The 5 Second Rule MIGHT Be True

The five second rule is the common belief that if you drop a piece of food on the floor, and you pick it up within 5 seconds, the food is still safe to eat. Is this accurate, or just a myth? Laci and Trace take a look at the interaction of harmful bacteria and the food to determine whether or not it's safe to eat.

Read More:
Researchers Prove the Five Second Rule is Real
"Food picked up just a few seconds after being dropped is less likely to contain bacteria than if it is left for longer periods of time, according to the findings of research carried out at University's School of Life and Health Sciences."

Scientists Study What to Do If You Drop a Cookie on the Floor
"Once again, you've dropped your snack. You bend down, snatch it up and gently blow off any dust - and hope, deadly germs."

Study: Five-Second Rule Is (Mostly) Legit
"A UK study is contradicting the conventional wisdom that the five-second rule is mostly bunk, claiming the amount of time food is on the ground really does have an effect on how much bacteria gets on the dropped item."

Surprising Science Experiment Backs 5-Second Rule For Dropped Food
"If you've ever consumed food after dropping it on the floor and then wondered what sorts of diseases you might be contracting, here's a new study that may put your mind at ease (or not).

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[arooobine]

I never eat off of the floor because it's gross. That's why. And because of bacteria. And because floor.

[symbolxchannel]

The floor has to be clean and dry and the dropped food should also be dry (non-sticky) and free of dust… Most of all, it must be worth it!

Usually, I simply don't eat it… In most case, I drop pieces of fruits or vegetable so I simply wash it with water…

[TheKoopasArmy]

Personally, I prefer the "30 day free trial"

[Arcyse]

It's sad to see that people subscribe just to dislike.

[VoidDankest]

How can carpet floors be one of the safest? Gross..

[MrGridStrom]

MrGirdStorm; Looks down onto his floor (DAMN), I wouldn't even eat some thing that hovered 1 inch, above my floor; I should really vacuum or some thing, huh.

[MsWannabeGamer]

It's not about the bacteria for me. It's the fact that it picks up all kinds of crumbs and dirt. It don't want to eat that.

[jollygoodfellow]

No matter where you go, all floors have a certain amount of FECAL MATTER on them, because people track that with them on their shoes, so even if the floor seems clean, and even if the infection risk is low, I'M NOT EATING POOP.

P.S. I like Laci's shirt...

[NoctumusTV]

It's funny how people are different. To me it's second nature that if I drop something on the floor I pick it up and throw it out. I would never even consider for a second to eat it, no matter how hungry I am and/or how delicious the food is.

[intothecalm]

I worry more about the chemicals used to clean the floor than the bacteria. I NEVER ate food off a floor until I had children, now the 5 second rule DEFINITELY applies!

[CirquedJoy]

My rule is that if you drop food on the floor, don't eat it, but you have five seconds to pick it up and put it in the trash before the dog does.

[heychrisfox]

Ladies do it more than dudes?! That's a shock to me.

[JaMaAuWright]

I will usually eat food that I've dropped on the floor provided that a) it's dry food, or the part of the food that made contact with the floor was the dry portion of the food, b) the floor doesn't have visible levels of dirt or pet hair, and c) the floor isn't a carpet.

[archiecook]

Whether I eat the food off the floor depends on several factors-where I dropped it (on floor/carpet/outside & public place/my own house) and also how much food I dropped, what kind of food it was and whether it picked up any visible dirt or hair from the fall. If I just dropped a small piece of candy and it fell on the ground while I was outside I'm not going to bother but if I was somehow extremely clumsy and dropped a whole sandwich on the floor in my kitchen right after making it-as long as it doesn't have visible dirt I'd go for it, and even if it did have visible dirt I'd probably just take off that part and eat the rest.

[MrJuicebox]

Thank you for captioning your videos!!

[TheStRyder]

The five second game: Food is dropped on the floor, player has to complete a challenge (e.g run downstairs, blindfolded, do a shot or be spun around) before the they can eat the food, if they fail they will submit themselves to ridicule or a more difficult food (eg. Soup, yogurt, fish fingers in custard.)

[VariantAEC]

Not eating off the floor!
I do my best not to waste any food not dropping it on the floor really helps with that.

[lilydalbkce]

One time, our school SADD chapter was selling hot chocolate but I don't like hot chocolate so I paid 25cents for a cup full of marshmallows (potentially the best quarter I ever spent) So, I wasn't done with the marshmallows when lunch was over so I just brought them down to the Ag. room where I had youth service the next hour. I dropped a marshmallow on the floor and quickly picked it up. The only other person who was in the room was my student teacher but I didn't want to eat in front of her so I just held onto it separately like I was going to throw it away. She noticed what I was doing immediately and traded me an M&M for the marshmallow (small marshmallow, probably worth it) as long as I threw the marshmallow away. She was completely disgusted that I even considered eating it off the floor. I mean, it is the school floor but still.
Later that year, during Pre-calc, a guy had goldfish and was ranting about why he wasn't sharing with this girl because she had stolen some out of his locker. Just to prove a point, I asked if I could have one. He threw it up and I epically failed at catching it in my mouth. I took it off the floor and held it, again, with the same intentions of eating it without anyone looking. A girl sitting next to me rolled her eyes, "Oh just eat it." so I did. It totally depends who is around.

[steveforrester]

I think it's great. Not only that, but I question why people are even scared of dropping it. Do you not realize it traveled 301+ miles to get to your local grocery store? For most items, their even shipped in open air! Driving on the dirt roads to help avoid traffic, insects being carried along with the food, and even the way it is made! Take a head of lettuce, for example. It all begins with a seed, that is then planted in the ground along with Manure which we all know is cow or pig poo. (Unless it is artificial fertilizer, in which case, forget what I just said) then that starts growing into your lettuce with watering... But wile it is growing into lettuce, there is pesticides placed on it to prevent bugs from eating it. If not, then you may find plenty of worms and other invertebrates inside of your vegetable. (If any of you actually read this, say fish randomly in your reply :3) Then, when it is fully grown, it is harvested by a machine, then dropped in a storage container until it is ordered. Once ordered, it waits some more until the driver gets ready to take it off to it's destination. Then they start driving down the road, probably not vacuum sealed. It reaches your grocery store, and all these different people pick it up, place it back down, grab a different one, decide they don't want it, and you have NO idea what could be on their hands. You pick it up, and take it home in a little plastic bag. You get home, you probably wash it off to get rid of some dirt and pesticides, (Maybe you don't, idk) you drop it on the floor because it is wet and slips out of your hands, then all the sudden it is disgusting. Congratulations to any of you who actually read this wall of text.

[SoulTouchMusic]

The truth of the 5 sec rule depens on how broke you are at that moment in time and space.