5 Seconds Germ Rule How long can you eat broken food?

Bacteria will only stick to dropped food after 5 seconds?
Some people react very quickly when they drop food from their hands and onto the floor. After all, there is the "5-second rule", which says it takes some time for the food that has fallen off to be contaminated with bacteria. But what about this rule?

It takes up to the contamination always five seconds?
What to do if the just bought piece of pizza or the sandwich just dropped on the floor? Pick up and throw away or eat anyway? Some people say that it is safe to consume fallen food as long as they are stored fast enough.

Finally, there is the so-called "5-second rule," according to which it takes at least five seconds for bacteria to adhere to it. Researchers from the US have now found in a study that the process of contamination is somewhat more complicated.

According to the five-second rule, it takes at least five seconds for bacteria to stick to fallen food. It would not do much with ice, but what about the rule? (Image: schallk / fotolia.com)

Type of surface and contact time play a role
Scientists Professor Donald Schaffner and Robyn Miranda of Rutgers University in New Jersey state that the five-second rule is too general a generalization.

According to researchers who published their findings in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, the moisture content of a food, the type of surface and the contact time with the soil play a crucial role in the so-called cross-contamination. According to the experts, the transfer time is sometimes less than a second.

Try different foods
In the course of the investigation, the scientists had applied Enterobacter aerogenes, a harmless bacterium, to four different surfaces: stainless steel, ceramic tiles, wood and carpet. Then they dropped four different foods - watermelon, gummy bears, bread and sandwiches.

The respective food then each less than a second, five, 30 and 300 seconds are. Each combination was repeated 20 times.

Bacterial transfer is affected by moisture
As the university writes in a communication, not surprisingly, the watermelon had the most severe contamination, gummy bears the least. Moisture will most affect bacterial transfer.

"Bacteria have no legs, they move with the moisture and the moister the food is, the higher the risk of the transfer," said Schaffner. It was amazing that the transfer rate for the carpet surface was very low compared to the rate for tiles and stainless steel.

Lost food does not have to be thrown away
"The texture of the surface and the food also seems to play an important role in the transfer," said Schaffner. So, according to the researchers, the five-second rule is "a gross simplification". "Bacteria can contaminate immediately."

But that does not mean that dropped food needs to be thrown away. According to health experts, dirt cleans our stomach. The gastric acid is so strong according to experts that it kills almost all bacteria. (Ad)