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Mon 21 May, 2007 11:18 am
Student researchers claim their study debunks the five-second rule by showing that bacteria needs more time to contaminate dropped food than previously believed. Working under the supervision of their assistant professor, the two cell-and-molecular biology students experimented with samples of wet food (apple slices) and dry food (Skittles candy); food samples were left on the floor for various intervals, then analyzed for contamination, the college said.
According to students, the results of their research showed that people can wait as long as 30 seconds to pick up wet foods and even longer for dry foods. Another potential finding perhaps: Either rogue bacteria don't particularly like Skittles or the candies are impervious to their immediate depredations; in the students' research, nearly five minutes elapsed before Skittles on the floor showed a bacterial presence.
I can sleep better now after seeing my children countless times pop some odd food article into their mouth after finding it on the floor or tucked away in a crevice of their car seat.
I feel better now too...in college I was a waiter at Red Lobster(I know...bitches were all over me), and a table of about 8 all ordered stuffed lobster, which takes a good 20 minutes to cook. The cook dropped the tray on the floor after taking it out of the oven, but we picked it all up following the 5 second rule.
God gave us immune systems it's okay to give them a little practice now and then... pick that food up and eat it... just think, there are probably a few guys who have gone down on Slappy and are still alive and healthy so don't worry about a little food that fell on the floor...
Quote:bitches were all over me
That's a female lobster for you!
Re: Five second rule changed to 30 second rule
Linkat wrote:Student researchers claim their study debunks the five-second rule by showing that bacteria needs more time to contaminate dropped food than previously believed. Working under the supervision of their assistant professor, the two cell-and-molecular biology students experimented with samples of wet food (apple slices) and dry food (Skittles candy); food samples were left on the floor for various intervals, then analyzed for contamination, the college said.
According to students, the results of their research showed that people can wait as long as 30 seconds to pick up wet foods and even longer for dry foods. Another potential finding perhaps: Either rogue bacteria don't particularly like Skittles or the candies are impervious to their immediate depredations; in the students' research, nearly five minutes elapsed before Skittles on the floor showed a bacterial presence.
I can sleep better now after seeing my children countless times pop some odd food article into their mouth after finding it on the floor or tucked away in a crevice of their car seat.
Something tells me the research wasn't carried out at Park St Station on the Red or Green lines in August ...
OK, so how does this work, exactly? That's how long it takes the bacteria to sense food and, like, scooch over there? What if it lands right on the back of one of the little smeggers?
I saw this whole five-second rule debunked on that show, Mythbusters. I don't remember if they said anything about any time limit at all. I think they just found that bacteria doesn't accumulate at all in any time frame.
But yes, if you drop a cookie on the floor of a bus station toilet, I'd say it's a good rule of thumb to just walk away.
I'm sure different rules apply in a typhoid ward.
kickycan wrote:
But yes, if you drop a cookie on the floor of a bus station toilet, I'd say it's a good rule of thumb to just walk away.
It'd be nice if you could walk away, however you have to realize that human urine ( on the floor ) can be real sticky and you might just get stuck in the bus station toilet.
imo the study shows that "skittles" is an extremely dangerous food-substance that is even avoided by bacteria as long as possible
i wonder if bacteria would even survive if sprinkled with coke ?
hbg
kickycan wrote:I saw this whole five-second rule debunked on that show, Mythbusters. I don't remember if they said anything about any time limit at all. I think they just found that bacteria doesn't accumulate at all in any time frame.
But yes, if you drop a cookie on the floor of a bus station toilet, I'd say it's a good rule of thumb to just walk away.
Actually according to this study - I can understand why they came up with that result. It seems that if a food particle is more dry like candy, time doesn't matter, but if it is wet like a cut apple then bacteria will grow after 30 seconds (or baked stuffed lobster like in Slappy's case).
kickycan wrote:I saw this whole five-second rule debunked on that show, Mythbusters. I don't remember if they said anything about any time limit at all. I think they just found that bacteria doesn't accumulate at all in any time frame.
But yes, if you drop a cookie on the floor of a bus station toilet, I'd say it's a good rule of thumb to just walk away.
If I remember correctly they concluded as you said. They busted it.
And it makes sense to me, it's not as if bacteria can inch their way over to the food sample as soon as they "see" it.
My dad, who grew up on an Illinois farm during the Depression, used to say "You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die." So we didn't have the 5-second rule, we had the peck-of-dirt rule. We'd pick up whatever it was and say, "Just working on my peck of dirt."
Does anyone else remember this? Is it just a Midwestern thing?
mac11 wrote:My dad, who grew up on an Illinois farm during the Depression, used to say "You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die." So we didn't have the 5-second rule, we had the peck-of-dirt rule. We'd pick up whatever it was and say, "Just working on my peck of dirt."
Does anyone else remember this? Is it just a Midwestern thing?
It was the dark, rich soil of middle-America that provided medicine with some of the best antibiotic-producing microorganisms ever known to man.
mac11 wrote:My dad, who grew up on an Illinois farm during the Depression, used to say "You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die." So we didn't have the 5-second rule, we had the peck-of-dirt rule. We'd pick up whatever it was and say, "Just working on my peck of dirt."
Does anyone else remember this? Is it just a Midwestern thing?
I never heard of that before, but I used to eat dirt and mud as a child.
mac11 wrote:My dad, who grew up on an Illinois farm during the Depression, used to say "You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die." So we didn't have the 5-second rule, we had the peck-of-dirt rule. We'd pick up whatever it was and say, "Just working on my peck of dirt."
Does anyone else remember this? Is it just a Midwestern thing?
we called it you'll eat worse than dirt before you die.
Linkat, You're probably very close to death then.
Chai wrote:Linkat, You're probably very close to death then.
Actually eating dirt isn't that uncommon - although children usually stop around the age of 2 - I did eat dirt later than that. I loved the gritty taste and feel of it.
What the CDC says about eating dirt....
Eating dirt appears nearly universal among children under 2 years of age. Children may eat soil for the same reasons pregnant women and some animals do. Because of their rapid growth, they have special nutritional needs and surface soils may serve as supplemental nutrients. Among children, it seems eating dirt might have immunologic consequences. Maternal immunoglobulins are secreted in breast milk shortly before birth and for 1 year or more afterwards. Children often begin eating dirt a year or two after birth. As maternal immunity wanes, eating dirt might "vaccinate" children who are losing their maternal IgA, which could stimulate production of nascent immunoglobulins, especially IgA. Eating dirt might also help populate intestinal flora.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol9no8/03-0033.htm
kickycan wrote:I saw this whole five-second rule debunked on that show, Mythbusters. I don't remember if they said anything about any time limit at all. I think they just found that bacteria doesn't accumulate at all in any time frame.
But yes, if you drop a cookie on the floor of a bus station toilet, I'd say it's a good rule of thumb to just walk away.
They said it was immediate. That bacteria don't crawl over to the food. When it lands on them, they attach.
Which makes sense.
Does anyone over the age of 10 actually belive the 5 second rule anyway?
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