Floor Eating and the Five the Second Rule

We've all done it but is the '5 second rule' really valid?

It's happened to all of us. For me, it's happened way more than I like to admit because I am a teeny bit accident-prone and known to get the dumbest injuries ever.

The one thing I can say for sure is, I NEVER eat off the floor somewhere else. If I drop food in a restaurant, it may (or may not) get picked up off the floor, but I immediately throw it away or set it aside. However, if I do use the '5 second rule,' it's only in my house, and oddly enough, only in the kitchen. I'm not entirely sure why this is, but I.m only realizing it this very moment because I'm writing this blog.

According to the newest study from Rutger's University on WQAD.com,

"...when food sat on the floor from 1 to 300 seconds that the longer the food remained on the floor the more Enterobacter contamination occurred. There was a dramatic linear rise in the amount of bacteria sticking to the food in the first 10 to 30 seconds before leveling off with a slower rise thereafter"

87% of people admit to being floor eaters (babies not included). The faster you pick up the food, and the less grimy the food is (like toast), the less amount of bacteria can contaminate. The study also found that dropping food on carpet picks up less bacteria than on floors.