WHAT’S UP 11
October 2014
Pictures: iSTOCKPHOTO
Five seconds to rescue dropped food...
Does this scenario sound familiar? One day, you are treating yourself to some
fries. To your devastation, a giant chip falls to the floor. Your friend says, “Pick
it up quickly and it’ll be fine!” You do just that and pop it into your mouth.
You have just used the famous “five-second rule”: this rule says you can eat
dropped food if you pick it up within five seconds because it takes germs on
the floor more than five seconds to get onto the food.
R
Germs don’t follow the five-second rule: dropped food becomes less safe instantly
ecently, people
have been
claiming that
the five-second
rule is true
because of a study done at
Britain’s Ashton University.
Professor Anthony Hilton
and his students tested
whether time makes a
difference to how much
bacteria transfers from
surfaces onto food. They
found that there was actually
a difference between food
left on a surface for a couple
of seconds and food left there
for a much longer period of
time. Most common bacteria
in Britain as well as some
dangerous bacteria like E.coli
appeared in much higher
numbers on the food that
had been left there longer.
Before you start
celebrating by dropping
all your food on the floor,
you should know that the
researchers also measured
how different types of
surfaces affected how
quickly the germs moved.
Carpeted surfaces took
much longer for bacteria to
transfer. The highest risk was
posed by tiled or laminated
surfaces. This is bad news
for those of us in hot, humid,
and dust-prone Southeast
Asian cities, since most of
our floors have tiles or wood
rather than carpet.
Professor Hilton’s study
did prove that food picked
up in five seconds would
have fewer bacteria on it
than food picked up in
thirty seconds. However,
he stressed that the number
of germs picked up in five
seconds could still be enough
to cause harm. A lot depends
on what kind of bacteria it
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is. Some bacteria move faster
than others. Some need only
small numbers to make you
sick, while others need to
be present in large numbers
before they have any effect
on you. And, some are far
more dangerous than others.
For instance, you could
get sick from food picked
up after just two seconds
on a kitchen counter with
salmonella but be fine after
eating food that has stayed
on a clean floor for an hour.
Many other experiments
show that if you do not
want any germs at all to
transfer on to your food,
then you should be using a
zero-second rule. In those
experiments, 99% of bacteria
appeared on the food almost
immediately. If you really
wanted to eat that potato
chip off the floor before any
germs get on it, you would
have to pick it up in less than
0.01 seconds. Unless you
are The Flash, that is pretty
much an impossible task.
These research studies
prove that the five-second
rule is more of a fallacy than
fact.
– By ALISHA CHERIAN
The five-second rule as folklore
The five-second rule is a popular
belief that is part of our folklore.
Older relatives are passing on folklore
when they tell you not to plant your
chopsticks straight up in your rice ,
or when they say “touch wood” so
that something won’t be jinxed.
Some folklore teaches people
lessons and how to behave properly.
Some folklore is used to pass down
history and explain why things are
the way they are. Some folklore is
supposed to bring good fortune and
warn against bad luck.
It is important to consider what
happens when people treat folklore
fallacies as if they were correct facts.
Whether or not knocking on
wood counters bad luck, it is a
harmless habit unless you knock so
hard that you hurt your knuckles.
Breaking a mirror may not bring
you seven years of bad luck, but the
broken glass pieces can cut bare feet
and a new mirror will cost money.
Fact Or Fallacy is a series brought
to you by What’s Up in partnership with
the Information Literacy & Outreach
Department of the National Library Board.
VOCABULARY folklore (say “fowk-lor”; noun) = beliefs, customs, stories and myths of a community.
When you come across folklore in
your life, try and figure out why this
piece of folklore is kept alive. And
then, think about what the folklore’s
outcome may be for you.
The five-second rule survives
because it gives people the chance
to eat dropped food without feeling
guilty or appearing dirty in front of
others. Knowing this does not mean
you have to throw away anything
edible that is dropped. Rather,
use your common sense to decide
whether it is safe to eat.
For instance, an unpeeled banana
that has fallen on a sparkling clean
floor may be fine to eat if you peel it
carefully enough. A sandwich picked
up off a dusty pavement needs to
go straight into a trashcan, not your
mouth. Thus, take stock of each
situation and ask how risky it is to eat
the food that you have dropped. And,
remember: it is always better to be
safe than sorry.
SURE CLUB is a fun-filled
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about information literacy. Visit
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