This came up in a thread a long ways back, but when I tried to search on “second” and “rule”… the thingamajig spun its wheels for like 15 minutes. But I digress.
Anyone here heard of this? Basically, if you drop a piece of food on the floor, it’s still good if you pick it up within three or five seconds.
Now, it doesn’t work for food you can’t just brush off. You gotta brush it right off. M&M? Yep, brush it off. Spaghetti? Nope, get the 409.
<Sigh>
The Five second rule refers to the idea that if a piece of dry food drops on a clean, dry surface you have about 5 seconds to retrieve it before it is too grubby to eat.
Having just completed a class on Food Safety, stuff that’s dropped should stay dropped, imho.
What I used to (want to) say to customers when they saw me picking up burger bun tops that I’d dropped on the floor at Arby’s and put back on the top of their Beef-n-Cheddar:
It’s been a decade since I had one, but IIRC, clean dry jujubes are still slightly sticky, so I wouldn’t eat one after dropping it on my kitchen floor. YMMV, unless you work in the food industry, then dropped = lost all the time.
You forgot the Movie-Theater Corollary: if it’s too dark to see the floor, it’s assumed to be sterile and you’re not limited to five seconds fishing around for your spilled popcorn.
Doesn’t avoiding germs in your youth cause your immune system to cause allergies?
I wish I could coherently explain myself. I saw a special on this on TLC or the Discovery Channel or something. You know, the one where that woman gets bitten by a wasp, and she’s fine the first time. Then, the second time, her bodies made a certain kind of antibody, or something, and she goes into anaphylactic shock and nearly dies. They said it was because she was not exposed to many germs as a young child, so her body didn’t make the switch to “adult” antibodies, or something.
Sure, I know what you mean. I guess in theory we can’t fight a bacterium if we’ve never had it - body can’t develop antibodies against it? Heck, I dunno.
Five second rule? Wuss. I live by the “Ten Second Rule.” Yeah, I’m a rebel, living on the edge.
Oh, and Neidhart, I live byt the exact OPPOSITE rule as you. If I can’t see the floor I assume it to be as dirty as Hell. There is no way I am going to eat anything that falls onto a movie theater floor, I mean, my shoes stick to the damn thing.
Basically, if it is dry, then anything that can harm me can be eliminated by blowing, I don’t even brush it off. I even eat wet stuff that has fallen on the floor…that’s when I break out the brushing technique. I do have my limits, though.
(Of course, I won’t mention the time I cleaned my room and found a jelly belly in the corner COVERED in dust, brushed off the dust, and ate it. Knowing full well that I had not bought any jelly bellies in over a month.)
We eat a lot of sunflower seeds in our house and sometimes dropping them is unavoidable, so occasionally I’ll come across the stray sunflower seed, say, under the couch, or by my bed.
I find that they taste even better after having sat under something for a month or two.
Anyone eat gum after it’s been dropped on a furry carpet?
I only do if I’ve just started chewing it.
