14 DAY TRIAL // I'm afraid it's bad news for people who are incredibly attached to food and who cannot stand the thought of saying goodbye to the perfect hamburger, even when the delicious treat tries to make a run for it and ends up flat on the floor.
Thus, researcher Jorge Parada with the Loyola University Health System in the United States says that, contrary to what most people think, things that get dropped on the floor become contaminated immediately.
This means that they are no longer good to eat and should be thrown away. Simply put, this specialist is quite convinced that the “5-second rule” saying that one has 5 seconds to recover food after dropping it should be tossed out.
“A dropped item is immediately contaminated and can't really be sanitized. When it comes to folklore, the 'five-second rule' should be replaced with 'When in doubt, throw it out',” the researcher said in a statement, as cited by Science Daily.
Apparently, trying to get the dropped item clean by rinsing it does not really help either. This is because, rinse or no rinse, chances are potentially dangerous microorganisms like bacteria will still be lurking on its surface.
“I don't think anyone would invoke the five-second rule if it fell in the toilet. At the end of the day, this is a polite social fiction we employee to allow us to eat lightly contaminated foods,” Jorge Parada jokingly said.
Still, the specialist argues that, all things considered, the degree of contamination greatly depends on how dirty the floor is, and on how sticky and prone to attracting bacteria the dropped items are.