Whats the 5 seconds rule based on? Is it actually okay to eat food thats been dropped on the floor as long as it hasn’t been in contact with the floor for more than 5 seconds?

Question

Whats the 5 seconds rule based on? Is it actually okay to eat food thats been dropped on the floor as long as it hasn’t been in contact with the floor for more than 5 seconds?

In: Biology

Answer 1

The 5 second rule is completely made up. Once food touches any surface, there is a very high likelihood that it will be contaminated. Now, if the contamination is enough to cause sickness or other side effects could be determined by the amount of time that the food was in contact with the surface, but would also be dependent on the contaminant itself and many other factors.