Is it possible to eat food that had fallen on the floor

Five-second rule reads quickly raised not considered to have fallen. It is commonly thought that the food raised from the floor for five seconds, you can still eat. We figured out whether this is so.

In 2003, a student at Harvard University, Gillian Clark (Jillian Clarke) held studyAssociated with the rule of five seconds. Within its framework it interviewed hundreds of people and find out their views about this rule.

It turned out that 70% of women and 56% of men believe that if fast food lift from the floor, it can be still there, as the bacteria do not have time to "run across" in the fallen object. It was found also that the biscuits and sweets raise much more than broccoli and cauliflower.

For his study of Clark received the Ig Nobel prize, and became the youngest student at Harvard, gets her ever.

But the purpose of the study was not to ascertain public opinion, and prove or disprove that the rule works. Clark and her colleagues took a sample from the university campus in the floor, the lab and cafeteria. Analysis showed that the relatively clean floors and does not contain large amounts of bacteria. The experiment was repeated with the same result. The conclusion was simple: the food that had fallen on the floor, you can pick and eat as much as five seconds, and during any other time without health consequences.

However, the researchers did not stop there and decided to see what would happen to the food that had fallen to the floor, crawling with bacteria. On the floor caused a small amount of the bacteria E. coli or E. coli. Then it put the pieces of cookies and candy. The bacteria were found at Whole Foods, even after a few seconds. The rule has been disproved.

But Paul Dawson of Clemson University found himself dissatisfied with the results of the study. He decided to find out how much bacteria is transmitted in five seconds, and there is a difference between food that had lain on the floor for five seconds, or, say, a minute.

researchers caused salmonella on the wooden floor, tile and carpet. Five minutes thereafter, there was placed a paste or bread Bolognese at 5, 30 and 60 seconds. The experiment was repeated several times after the bacteria were on the floor for 2, 4, 8 and 24 hours.

Dawson and his colleagues found that the number of bacteria on food does not depend on how long she lay on the floor - a few seconds or a minute. But we found both.

The total number of bacteria on the floor decreases with time, and the smaller they were, the less they then turned out on food.

It was found that the surface is also important. Carpet handed eating less bacteria than tile and wood. Food, raised the mat, contained 1% of all bacteria, and with tile and wood - from 48 to 70%.

Dawson adds that the floors and carpets often contain harmful bacteria. However, if on the floor are millions of bacteria, even 0.1% of them can lead to disease. For example, 10 coliform bacteria virus can be fatal for a person with a weak immune system. But the chance that they would be on a normal surface is minimal.

Is it possible to eat food off the floor? Better not.