Food Science Confirms the Five-Second Rule

So there is confirmation to that old rule that the faster you grab it off the floor the cleaner it is.
Science Confirms that Five-Second Rule for Dropped Food Is Real - TIME

I don't feel so bad about those steaks I put back on the grill back in the bad old days of working the line in fine dining (hey, you drop a $30 steak the 5 second rule is absolute).

As I got older I stopped doing stuff like that and made sure my crews didn't either but of course when you get home it's a different story.
How about everybody else?
When it hits the floor does it go straight to the trash?

 

The five second rule makes sense. The longer food is exposed to the floor, the fewer miniature organisms, dirt, and other yucky things will adhere to it.

However, the old rule from what I remember is "anything before 5 seconds is 'safe to eat' ". That all depends on how you define 'safe.'

I think it's bunk. Unless I'm super desperate and trust the source of the floor (approximately never), if any food hits the floor it goes in the garbage. I don't fuck around with that stuff.

 

Mythbusters did a trial about whether the type of food dropped had an effect on whether it picked up more "nasties" off the floor. The wetter the thing you drop is (e.g. meat vs bread) the worse it was from memory.

Personally I don't have a huge issue with picking up stuff and eating - remember - your body is actually pretty good at fighting off bacteria anyway. It is also one of reasons I'm less convinced I should use anti-bacterial *anything* for cleaning - we grow strong by fighting bacteria in the old fashioned way!

 

I didn't check the link, but there was an earlier study that "disconfirmed" the 5 second rule.

However, there was a glitch. Ordinary floors just weren't dirty enough, so they had to lay out a lot of dirt and germs first!

In my opinion, the wet/dry thing is critical. If a dry food item is dropped on an ordinarily clean floor, I treat it as still being food. If a moist food item (of value) can be rinsed off under clean water, it's still good. Otherwise, it becomes garbage.

 

For me, it depends on the floor. Anything dropped on a public floor goes straight in the trash, period. I'm a little bit more lenient at home...except for the fact that anything resembling food gets snatched up by one of the dogs as soon as it hits the floor.

 

The five second rule is irrelevant when you own a dog that can snag it in four.