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Who among us hasn’t quickly reclaimed a floor cookie when no one was looking? If nobody’s seen: it didn’t happen and it’s not dirty. Well, not quite.
A new study out of Manchester Metropolitan University has come up with a more nuanced iteration of the fallen food rule. Because, if you’re going to do it, you might as well know with which foods you’ll be safe(er).
The food sciences researches looked at five test foods—bread with jam, cooked pasta, a slice of ham, a plain cookie, and dried fruit—which were left of on the ground for intervals of three, five and 10-seconds. These commonly eaten foods were selected because of their variance in water-activity level—water being a key factor in bacteria growth.
• Foods with a high salt or sugar content, like many processed foods, were less likely to pick up harmful bacteria in so short a period of time. The ham (high salt) and sugary bread and jam were both considered safe, with little sign of bacterial growth, when retrieved after three seconds on the ground. The jam’s high sugar content made the slathered slice inhospitable for bacterial growth.
• The cooked pasta and dried fruit, however, both tested positive for klebsiella, a bacteria known to cause a range of diseases and infections, as well as soft-tissue conditions. (Surprising. You’d think filth and germs would be more likely to stick to wettish ham, as compared to dried fruit. But it’s the salt and nitrates in the ham, a preserved meat, that protect it from growth of most bacteria.)
• The dry cookie was also relatively well off—after three, five and ten seconds—because of its low water activity level and “adhesion ability”.
Foods made to withstand nuclear war—processed, packaged foods—are a safer, sugarier, saltier bet. As are cured foods, like ham—which were prepared this way, historically, to keep over time unrefrigerated. Makes sense. [DailyMail via Foodbeast]
Image credit: Beans In Tin Can from Shutterstock
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I’d rather eat it with a spoon. I find that food tends to fall through the gaps in the 5 second rule, more often than not.
Some of these processed foods might protect well against bacteria, but I’d be damned if I’d pick up and eat a ham slice, or bread with jam (butter side down) if it fell on my carpet with all the hair and debris it would be pick up along the way…ewww
Interesting to know regarding bacteria resistance though…
this. nothing worse than butter-side-down. :’(
This study doesn’t account for cleanliness of the floor…
I’d happily eat from my own floor if I knew it had been thoroughly cleaned very recently; but would likely avoid eating from Cinema linoleum that had probably been ‘cleaned’ by sloshing over a mop soaked in month-old, bacteria-ridden water.
Something we’ve learnt at the Styloko office: everyone has a different “X second rule.” Mine is 10. Others say five, some three.
I think people generally say:
x + 2 seconds
With x being how long it’s been on the floor already, as long as it’s less than 10s.
Mine is 0 – if it hits the floor, it ain’t getting no mouth action.
*puts on best parent voice* Just think of all those starving Africans that would fight to the death for the food you drop on the floor and throw away!
I generally end up thinking – I wear my shoes out on the streets in all kinds of filth including excrement – I come home and take my shoes off but usually in doing so, my socks come into contact with an area on which my shoe has been thus spreading some of this around the floor upon which the food has just fallen – therefore if I eat floor-fallen food I will be eating excrement. Thus I ensure I don’t drop my food on the floor.
And as for the starving Africans, they are welcome to my food-waste as long as they are happy to collect.
Though I might have to take back my former admonishment. Some things just aren’t worth it. Like this:
http://imgur.com/z0llg
Oh god, that is horrible.
I like this rule!
If I dropped Jam on the floor, I’d be less likely to want to eat it, mainly because t would make a massive mess and I’d wipe up the mess and put it straight in the bin and also because it’s more likely to pick up bits of dirt and fluff.
What I learned from this: the best way to protect your teeth from bacteria is to brush them with jam!
Although my wife is a dental hygienist/therapist and will kill me for this I like how you think!
Personally I prefer the gone in 60 seconds rule.. Better start eating quick or it will be mine!