The Five Second Rule

[joshwriting]

There are people out there with way too much time on their hands. This is one of the related stories.

From Boston.com:

" In the interest of culinary science, student researchers at Connecticut College conducted exacting experiments in the dining hall and the snack bar to see how long it takes for food dropped on the floor to attract rogue bacteria, the New London college said in a press release today.

"According to lore and legend, dropped food that spends less than five seconds on the floor - the so-called five-second rule - is still safe to eat because rogue bacteria need more time to taint it."

" Working under the supervision of assistant professor Anne Bernhard, the two cell-and-molecular biology students experimented with samples of wet food (apple slices) and dry food (Skittles candy); food samples were left on the floor for various intervals, then analyzed for contamination, the college said.

"According to Goettsche and Moin, the results of their research showed that people can wait as long as 30 seconds to pick up wet foods and even longer for dry foods.

"Another potential finding perhaps: Either rogue bacteria don't particularly like Skittles or the candies are impervious to their immediate depredations; in the students' research, nearly five minutes elapsed before Skittles on the floor showed a bacterial presence."

Comments

[cherrypearl.livejournal.com]

Mythbusters did it first!

[wanderingdavi.livejournal.com]

Mythbusters did it before these guys. I remember a similar study from the late 90s. Rather than tracking any bacteria, they were specifically looking at potentially harmful levels. The eventual conclusion was that any normal place, including the floor of a public bathroom was just fine pretty much indefinitely, and that a surface they knew to be contaminated with e-coli transmited the bacteria pretty much instantly.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Researchers from Clemson University also found that a surface spiked with salmonella infected the food within a second. And that salmonella bacteria live on surfaces for up to 28 days.

In other words, the floor is cleaner than the kitchen counters.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Sorry, meant to post a link -- http://www.here-now.org/shows/2007/05/20070518_13.asp

[otoselkie.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't want Skittles even if I was a bacteria, either.

[otoselkie.livejournal.com]

Er, bacterium. *totally forgot her grammar*

I thought it was 10 seconds? :D

[murasaki99.livejournal.com]

Anyway, I do belive Skittles are impervious to anything, since I think they come under the category 'non-edible'. :D