Challenging the "Five Second Rule"

[Colonel]

I picked up a brat with rocks on it and ate it so that pretty well explains what I will eat.

 

[Urederra]

Strange study, that is what I would change:

• Don't spread bacteria on the floor, usually you don't spread bacteria before dropping food. And if you do, don't use E. coli, use another less pathogenic bacteria. Safety first.
  
• Take, say 20 gummy bears, and make two sets of 10. throw one set and pick them up five seconds later. Keep the other set aside.
  
• Scrap the surface of the 20 gummy bears and infect petri dishes with the scrap, one petri dish for each bear.
  
• Count the number of colonies in each petri dish and compare the two sets of numbers, non thrown versus thrown.
  
• Eat the gummy bears.

 

[Godwynn]

Of course I do. Don't you?

That was part of George Carlin's comedy skit you quoted.

 

[MadScotsMan]

I follow the five second rule, except for wet food, like a lollipop or something. Otherwise, I blow off the dirt

 

[azzaman333]

Personally, I'm unlikely to eat something that falls on the ground.

Although, I have a friend who will eat just about anything even if it hits the ground. Including a Skittle which he found on the ground completely unaware of how long it had been there.

 

[emzie]

There's more bacteria on my fingers than on my kitchen floor. I have an immune system for a reason.

I'll only not eat what I dropped if it has visable dirt, hair or whatever on it.

 

[Fetus4188]

Seeing as how my food is never in an isolated vacuum and in contact with some sort of microbe infested surface at all times, I think I'll take my chances that a dry floor isn't particularly worse than any of the others.

 

[Chandrasekhar]

I don't eat stuff that falls on the floor... though I don't try and tell myself that I have a good reason for it, either. It just seems... gross.

 

[IglooDame]

I'll use the 5-second rule for candy, but I throw cauliflower on the floor to get rid of it, not because I want it to make it taste better.

Heck, the bug that is waiting for 5 second to be up before he claims the droppage and drags it away is probably edible, too.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Didn't myth busters bust the 5 sec rule?

Yes they did, this should be enough for anybody.

 

[GoodGame]

Skittles are like wax-coated, so they're practically impervious to everything.
Basically a 60 second rule unless some insect comes along.

Everything else will potentially pick up fungi spores, cockroach excrements, and other nasty stuff, so I hesitate picking then up (never pick-up) in 'dirty' environments. Though you keep your kitchen floor clean enough to eat off of, right?

 

[Gr3yL3gion]

Only if it's a cigarette

 

[cthom]

i only eat food that has fallen on me. that tends to happen frequently when watching tv. i'm not too sure how e-coli free my lap is, though.

 

[LucyDuke]

That was part of George Carlin's comedy skit you quoted.

Yeah... but that's where I stop agreeing.

I don't eat stuff that falls on the floor... though I don't try and tell myself that I have a good reason for it, either. It just seems... gross.

That is a honest and thoroughly respectable answer.

I'll use the 5-second rule for candy, but I throw cauliflower on the floor to get rid of it, not because I want it to make it taste better.

Nobody mentioned that yet.