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       #Post#: 1543--------------------------------------------------
       Eating dropped food--doing away with the "5-second" ru
       le
       By: agate Date: January 29, 2017, 4:06 pm
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       Interesting that food dropped on carpeting may be safer to pick
       up and eat than food dropped on tile. From Berkeley Wellness:
       [quote]Should You Eat Dropped Food?
       It’s a question that has stirred up many a heated debate: Is it
       okay to eat food that has fallen on the floor? Many people abide
       by the “five-second rule,” which maintains that anything is fair
       game if you pick it up within that time frame. Some allow 10,
       20, even 30 seconds to pass before relegating the food to the
       trash bin. And legend has it that Genghis Khan abided by a
       12-hour rule. But others argue that the rule is an urban
       myth—that no dropped food is safe. Who’s right?
       The five-second rule has actually been put to scientific test.
       In an often-cited, though unpublished, study from 2003, a high
       school student interning at the University of Illinois found
       that gummy bears and fudge-striped cookies placed on ceramic
       floor tiles that had been inoculated with E. coli picked up the
       bacteria in less than five seconds. That is, germs can hitch a
       ride on food upon contact, it seems, so it doesn’t matter how
       quickly you try to grab it. On the other hand, the student also
       found that most floors—in university buildings—were cleaner than
       expected.
       Subsequently, in a 2007 study published in the Journal of
       Applied Microbiology, researchers at Clemson University doused
       floor surfaces (tile, wood, and carpet) with Salmonella and then
       dropped bologna and bread on them for five, 30 or 60 seconds.
       Within five seconds, the food picked up 150 to 8,000 bacteria
       (the least from carpet, the most from tiles). What’s more, they
       found that bacteria can live on dry surfaces for several weeks
       at levels high enough to quickly transfer to food. According to
       the lead author, "while the bacteria found on most surfaces are
       harmless, food dropped on surfaces contaminated with pathogens
       will pick up those bacteria immediately.”
       The latest study, published online in Applied and Environmental
       Microbiology in September 2016, went the full nine yards in
       testing the five-second rule. Researchers from Rutgers
       University dropped four foods (watermelon, plain bread, buttered
       bread, and hard gummy candy) onto four surfaces (stainless
       steel, ceramic tile, wood, and carpet) that were contaminated
       with bacteria and then allowed to dry. They allowed the foods to
       stay in contact with the surface for four periods—less than one
       second, five seconds, 30 seconds, and 300 seconds (5 minutes).
       Each scenario was tested 20 times.
       Not surprisingly, watermelon, because it is very moist, became
       most contaminated at all time intervals, while the fewest
       bacteria transferred to the gummy candy. Once again, carpet had
       the lowest transfer rates. The study’s conclusion: “Although we
       show that longer contact times result in more transfer, we also
       show that other factors including the nature of the food and the
       surface are of equal or greater importance. Some transfer takes
       place ‘instantaneously’ at times less than one second,
       disproving the 'five-second rule.' "
       Bottom line: Use common sense. Occasionally eating food that was
       briefly on the floor is not likely to make you sick. But it
       depends on what you drop and where. There’s a big difference
       between picking up a cracker from a just-cleaned dry kitchen
       floor (probably safe) versus the floor near the cat litter box
       (not). Or between a reasonably clean living room carpet
       (probably okay, though a little fuzzy) and a public bathroom
       (obviously not). On the other hand, since it’s hard to judge
       just how clean a floor is—it may look spotless but still harbor
       bacteria—you shouldn’t make eating off it a habit. And if you’re
       immune-compromised or in frail health, it’s best to follow the
       “zero second” rule. Keep in mind, too, that microbes are not
       just on floors. In fact, kitchen counters can be even more
       contaminated than the floor.[/quote]
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