As a child, I was familiar with one phrase "Drop it on the floor, the devil already had a bite off it", and while I didn't see any devil having a firsthand bite just like the rest of my mate, we just all believed it and wouldn't pick any food item especially already prepared item that fell on the floor.
As adults, we began to question a lot of those believes and those words being that we didn't see the devil come physically eat up our food and then some people have learned how to pick up food from the ground very fast, inspect it for dirt, and if it looks clean, they immediately continue with their breakfast, lunch, brunch, supper, or dinner because they have come to learn that there is a 5 seconds rule but then a question comes to mind, is the 5 seconds rule valid?
That is a question that children would not bother worrying themselves about since the 5 seconds rule doesn't apply to them but for adults who have decided to become very inquisitive, the question now becomes does the 5 seconds rule apply to all surfaces? Are some surfaces likely to be more harmful as they transfer bacteria, fungi, and other microbes to the food faster than others, and does this rule mean that there is a time window for microbes to lash on to food when they land on surfaces?
It is believed that this rule dates back to the court of Genghis Khan of Mongolia who established the Khan rule that allowed people to eat food after it had fallen to the ground provided the Khan approved of it. In the 1960s, chefs would quickly grab food that fall off pans and put them back into the pan so as to continue cooking. In 1995, in the Novel "Wanted: Rowing Coach" it was then put into writing and in 2001, consuming food that already found its way to the floor was also mention in the movie Osmosis Jones and in the movie, Osmosis Jones was the white blood cell that would defeat the pathogenic enemy that find their way into the body after the food has been consumed.
Thanks to media, and science innovation thanks to microscope, people can now have it registered in the heart of people that germs would attach to food and enter the body through the mouth, causing serious diseases but then, what happens to the 5 seconds rule. Food safety specialist decided to do a study on this rule and published a paper titled "Longer Contact time increases cross-contamination of Enterobacter aerogenes from surface of food" and they contaminated four different surfaces with the non-pathogenic bacteria, and decided to test different types of food on the surface and did a test with Stainless Steel, Ceramic Glazed tiles, Maple laminated wood, and indoor-outdoor carpet with food that included watermelon, white buttered bread, white unbuttered bread, and gummy bears.
The test was done in a controlled setting, and each of the were dropped on each of the surfaces where the bacteria had already been introduced to. They replicated each of the food and surfaces 20 times to make a sum of 2560 contact measurement, they were able to come to a results that bacteria stick to food immediately they tough the ground meaning that the 5 seconds rule is complete BS, like I mean a myth but not really a myth in full. Although the food and the bacteria clicked together immediately they came in contact with one another but then some were worse at it than others being that the watermelon was wetter and at such would adhere to the bacteria more than less wet food. Also, the food with the least load of bacteria was the gummy bear since it was not wet. The moisture of the food and longer contact time would increase the bacteria impact.
Reference
https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/the-origin-of-the-five-second-rule/
http://archive.thecitizen.com/archive/main/archive-020927/opinion/op-03.html
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/aem.01838-16?permanently=true&
https://www.aaas.org/discovery-bacteria
https://www.snexplores.org/blog/eureka-lab/five-second-rule-designing-experiment
Image Reference
Image 1 || Flickr || The Spaghetti Incident?
Image 2 || Flickr || Spilled dog food at the office
