Food and gastronomy
This rule has become a real myth.
If you pick up the food you just dropped on the ground within five seconds, it is safe to eat. Otherwise, it is no longer consumable. So, old legend or scientific fact? Researchers from Rutger University in the United States conducted the investigation.
Research on different foods and different surfaces
To find out if the “five second rule” was true or not, they compared the transmission of bacteria on food according to the surface (stainless steel, wood, ceramic and carpet), the food and the cooking time. contact between the two.
The researchers smeared each surface with germs of bacteria similar to salmonella and then placed four different foods (watermelon, white bread, buttered bread, jellybeans). They realized that “Contact time, food and type of surface all had highly significant effects”. The food contaminated with bacteria the fastest was watermelon, while sweets took much longer to become infected.
But does the five-second rule work or not? According to the researchers, no. If a longer contact time leads to a greater transfer of germs, other factors influence the phenomenon such as the nature of the surface and the food. They also found that food was immediately contaminated with soil bacteria, regardless of the surface or the food.
Although we have found that longer contact times lead to greater transfer of bacteria, we have also found that other factors, including the nature of the food and the surface, also matter. “So this disproves the five-second rule”, say professors at Rutgers University. If we can therefore have fun with this theory, it has no scientific basis.
