Do You Follow The "Five-Second Rule"? It Looks Like Some Foods Are Better To Drop Than Others
You drop food. You eat it. What happens next to your body? (Photo: Romulo A Yanes)
It’s a moment of truth: The food that you were just about to eat falls to the floor. You grab it as fast as you can, but…do you follow the “five-second rule” and go on to consume that food?
If you do, take heart—health experts have recently explained that the “five-second rule” is a myth…well. Depending on which foods you drop.
Australia’s Food Safety Information Council says that it’s all about bacteria—those little guys seem to be big fans of moist, wet foods, but they’re not so much into dry ones.
Related: The 10 Healthiest Foods to Have in Your Kitchen
So if you drop something like meat or cheese, which both qualify as “wet,” the chances of contamination of your food are likely higher than if you drop something dry (like chips or cookies).
Some of the bacteria that adhere to dropped foods may be benign—but an estimated 48 million Americans get food poisoning each year…not all of those are due to eating food that’s been dropped on the floor, of course, so it’s good to think if that piece of spinach or pizza or bacon that fell on the floor is worth the possible risk.
Do you ever eat things that have fallen on the floor?
By Lexi Petronis
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