The Five-Second Rule

You look forward to biting in to one of the chocolate truffles sitting on the silver platter.  You wait patiently through the last speaker of the evening. Coffee is being served.  Finally the platter with the truffles comes along.  You select your favorite one.  The server leaves.  As you lift the truffle toward your mouth, it falls to the ground.  No one saw.  Do you pick it up?  Does the five-second rule apply?

Over the years, I have dropped my share of food.  Sometimes there is an abundance of the food dropped, so I think nothing of tossing it in the trash and taking a new one.  But what if the fallen food was not available in abundance?  Does it depend on how clean the ground is?  Does the type of food factor in? 

People often joke about the five-second rule.  I know very well that it is not a ‘rule’ but rather an excuse to feel okay about eating something that has touched the ground’s surface.  I thought it would be interesting to ask a variety of people what they thought about the five-second rule.  Here’s what they had to say:

Cancer Survivor:  I believe in the ten-second rule. We need a little dirt in order to build our immune system.

Middle School Student:  It depends. If it’s at home five-second rule applies but anywhere else it's gross.

Science/Health Educator:  I say false.  Not safe to pick up.

Doctor:  In regards to five-second rule false and can be gross depending on what it falls on!

English Teacher:  I spent time growing up in Africa, so I don’t worry about some dirt here and there.  Depending on the food, if I can brush off a little dirt, it doesn’t bother me. 

Senior Citizen: I do not follow the five-second rule. Five seconds does not seem like a long time, but how LONG do you think it takes?   What if you have a dog or cat?   What if they carried something on their paws? What if you stepped on something outside, like a bug, or anything.    Would you really like to still put something in your mouth "five seconds" later?  Not me.

Musician: The only validity to this I think is that five seconds doesn’t allow enough time:

-to get grossed out  

-for other people to see you transfer it from floor to plate

-for the dog, cat or whatever to interfere

The decision to pick it up probably depends a lot on a person’s perception of how dirty the surface is. I’m sure the food picks up germs; it’s just a question of how many and what type.

Twenty-Something: Depends on the food!   And the condition of the floor.  An Oreo on the living room carpet?  Sixty-second rule, no problem.  Cupcake face down on the sidewalk?  Not even one second.

New Mother: Well, at the beginning, I thought gross, incomprehensible, but now...I have seen too much at daycare to pitch a fit every time. I try to intervene, but if I am not in time, I don't sweat it much. Of course, each time I try to logically explain that it is not sanitary, but the meaning is loss on an 18 month old. It also depends where we are when it happens...

I guess I fall in the middle.  I have brushed off food that fell on what I considered a ‘clean’ floor and ingested it.  Nothing happened to me.  Then again, if it falls outside, I don’t consider eating it at all, ever.  And, as the twenty-something person said, cupcakes…never!

So what are your thoughts on the five-second rule?