By Savvy Auntie Staff Writers


We've all heard of the 5-second rule: You drop food on the floor and if you pick it up within 5-seconds, it's still safe to eat. It was thought that the food was unable to accrue bacteria within those five seconds. The rule has saved us from tears of a little niece or nephew who dropped their Gummy Bears. Or dropped that last piece of juicy watermelon. Or dropped an open-faced peanut butter sandwich which just made for them. We had a few seconds to pick it up, brush it off, exclaim: "5-second rule!" and all was right with the world.

But now, Robyn C. Miranda and Donald W. Schaffne, researchers from Rutgers University, have taken the time to ruin this rule for us all and published their findings in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. We should probably be grateful.

The researchers studied just how various food choices that children (and adults) often eat, including gummy candy, watermelon, and yes, peanut butter, succumb to bacteria when they have fallen to the ground. And the ground they tested? Not the playground or sidewalk.They tested on floors you'd find in your own home. They looked at the time it takes for dropped food to become unsafe when it hits tile, wood or carpet. They also tested it on stainless steel, for all you modernist decorators.

Their conclusion? The 5-second rule is about 4.9 seconds off.

In other words, it's time for children to start crying over spilled candy. Otherwise, your niece or nephew will be ingesting the bacteria that accumulates immediately in some cases, like that cold, slippery piece of watermelon your nephew just dropped on your rug. Or, within a millisecond, like that peanut butter toast from which you just carefully removed the crust and sliced into a triangle exactly how your nephew likes it that fell face-down - or even face up.

The good news is that we are now more savvy about how quickly food absorbs bacteria. The bad news? Auntie will need to put another piece of bread in the toaster, open the peanut butter jar, and start again.

Photo: DBBPhotography
Published: September 14, 2016