Where the heck did this dumb ‘five-second’ rule come into being that people talk about now. Like, if you drop something, like food, on the floor, you have 5 seconds to recover it before it is no longer very safe to eat.
From that stupid commercial?
I suspect so, because I never heard it before then.
BTW - the instant food hits the ground, for any morons out there who believe the rule, it gets contaminated. By the time you recover it, it’s already loaded with a few thousand germs, especially moist food. Clean that floor all you want at home, but if you walk on it, germs are there buddy, lurking, hiding on top of or in the tiny cracks in the floor polish.
Five seconds my hairy butt! Snatch it up after one-second and it’s still contaminated.
Sounds sports related to me, like some sports bum dreamed it up in college as he made a flying tackle for that piece of day old pizza his buddy dumped on the carpet.
Yeah. That goes for you cleanliness nuts also who make guests leave their shoes in the mud room and wear slippers on your ultra clean carpets and floors. Still germs and lots of them.
I hate that dumb-ass commercial. When the guy is on the ground, scoping the oreo, wouldn’t you like to walk up behind him and drop-kick him in the ass?
Most people’s hands and counter tops are dirtier than their floors.
Actually, it is not a joke, and in the thread I linked to reasons that it isn’t a bad idea are discussed, mainly that it actually takes a little bit of time for the germs to all climb onto the piece of food.
I eat off the floor. Five seconds? Screw that! I’ve eaten jellybeans off the floor of my friends’ living room, and I didn’t know how long they’d been there. All I knew was that they weren’t squashed, and I felt like some jellybeans. I hardly ever get sick. I probably build up immunities from eating off the floor. Everything around us is infested with germs. Eating without washing your hands first is worse than eating off the floor, because you have likely touched doorknobs which have been touched by other people who have not washed their hands after wiping their feces-stained anus with toilet paper. Let’s face it, germs are a very big part of the whole permanent dwelling thing.
Tzel makes an interesting point. I have a rather inclusive attitude about what I will and won’t eat–an attitude that applies equally to month-old refrigerator Chinese as well as floor foods–and I almost never get sick. Could I be developing an Uber-Stomach?
Growing up in the early-mid 70’s, the rule in my cadre of friends was 7 seconds. Almost everyone I’ve spoken to on the issue had this rule, with variations of 5-10 seconds. Since the rule seems to be commonplace, the ad works because it resonates with those of us who grew up with such a rule.
Not by harmful bacterium according to the study Bear_Nenno cites in the thread linked by waterj2. Apparently, food is still pretty safe for 4.75 seconds.
Sua
I personally live with the “ten second rule”, but my fiance is a real rebel without a cause. He doesn’t follow no stinkin’ rules. Neither one of us has ever been sick though.
I have eaten all sorts of odd, old candies I’ve found on the floor and in the couch cushions (and in purses I hadn’t used in ages). My husband and I argue about this- it grosses him out, and he calls me a “floor eater” or “bottom feeder”. Frankly, I’m proud of my floor eating habits, and I’ve conducted more then one impromptu survey of friends and strangers regarding this topic.
For what it’s worth, I rarely get sick. My husband gets sick all the time
Yeah Bottom Feeders! The five second rule rocks, man. Because then you can justify eating something off the floor and NO ONE passes judgement on you. I bet God would use the five second rule if he…well, if he ate.
Well my brother always gets freaked if i eat something from the floor…but he’s a nut.
Relax,…dude who made the OP. You can’t take Mundane things this seriously.
The five second rule has been in effect for me all my life. There are however… limitation. Never, ever ever ever, pick pizza up that’s fallen cheese-side down… and then proceed to eat it…
[Simpsons]Very wrong. When will the world learn?[/Simpsons]
Also- a bag of marshmellows in a cement mixer- not good to eat. A cup of tea that has fallen onto a shag rug. And a leg of lamb that falls under the bed- unless you enjoy dust bunnies!
If you never take germs in, how does your system learn to fight 'em off?
That said, I don’t follow rules. I will not eat anything that has touched my floor. (For obvious reasons, my floor is filthy.) I will probably not eat anything that has hit carpet. (Ew! Fuzzies!) If I’m cooking for others tile is out too (wussie babies) But if I drop something dry on a kitchen floor that only I will suffer from, I’ll probably go for it. No rule, just sort of intuative hunches. “Bagel hit the floor? I’ll live, drop it in the toaster.”
I take it on a case-by-case basis. Pizza cheese-side-down? Probably not. Cheese-side-up? Probably. As long as it didn’t fall in to anything disgusting that was already on the floor.
