High-school student Jillian Clarke investigated the scientific validity of the “5-second rule” during her apprenticeship in Hans Blaschek’s University of Illinois lab this summer. You know the rule: If food falls to the floor and it’s in contact with the floor for fewer than 5 seconds, it’s safe to pick it up and eat it. —If You Drop It, Should You Eat It? Scientists Weigh In on the 5-Second Rule (University of Illinois)
One of the winners of the 2004 Ig Noble Prize. See also “The Effect of Country Music on Suicide.”
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I was waiting in a deli for my order when I saw a worker behind the counter drop a bagel from a tray of fresh bagles and he just picked it up and put it back on the tray. When he noticed that I saw what he did he just smiled and shrugged. I stopped eating there that day. I sometimes apply the 5 second rule at home especially if it involves chocolate, but it is just wrong for someone else to apply this rule to food that is not their own.
I just want to say that at the restaurant where I used to slave, er, work as a grill cook it was actually the “10 Second Rule” -and- it didn’t count if it landed on your shoe or if it was toast and it landed butter side up. Those were freebies. Believe me, if you’d ever worked where I’ve worked, you would very rarely brave eating out. whew!