Five second 'food on floor rule' really safe?

IANS | Sep 11, 2016, 04.30 PM IST

The widely accepted notion says its is all right to scoop up food and eat it within a "safe" five-second window..

Food, once dropped on the floor, is not safe to eat, however quickly you pick it up, warns a new study that debunks the widely accepted notion that it is all right to scoop up food and eat it within a "safe" five-second window.

Moisture, type of surface and contact-time all contribute to cross-contamination. In some instances, the transfer begins in less than one second, the study said.

"The popular notion of the 'five-second rule' is that food dropped on the floor, but picked up quickly, is safe to eat because bacteria need time to transfer," said Donald Schaffner, Professor at the Rutgers University at New Jersey, in the US.

"We decided to look into this because the practice is so widespread. The topic might appear 'light' but we wanted our results backed by solid science," Schaffner noted.

The researchers tested four surfaces -- stainless steel, ceramic tile, wood and carpet -- and four different foods -- watermelon, bread, bread and butter, and gummy candy.

They also looked at four different contact times -- less than one second, five, 30 and 300 seconds.

They used two media -- tryptic soy broth or peptone buffer -- to grow Enterobacter aerogenes, a nonpathogenic "cousin" of Salmonella naturally occurring in the human digestive system.