You just invested a lot of time, ingredients and love in that perfect sandwich, only for it land on the kitchen floor. Darn it! The 5 second rule immediately pops in your head and you confidently retrieve it, comforting your despair. A team of researchers at San Diego State University, however, has found that the germs do indeed attach themselves to edible items within that amount of time.

For the study, they used carrots which they laid on various surfaces – each was cleaned to serve as a constant. They tested the popular 5 second belief on a countertop, a kitchen sink, a table, and both a carpeted and tiled floor surface. The researchers found that germs affixed themselves to the carrots within five seconds of contact with different surfaces, the countertop being found to be dirtiest surface, with the carpeted and tiled floors following closely in second and third place. Apparently, the 5 second rule has been disproved, a gist that shouldn’t have been too hard for us to spot.

According to a separate study, conducted in tandem with the present one, some 65 percent of parents admitted to implementing the five second rule in their homes. Officials at disease control and prevention warn about the dangers inherent in germs contaminating foods, and recommend cleaning the food that comes in contact with contaminated surfaces.

 

Enjoyed this article? Join 40,000+ subscribers to the ZME Science newsletter. Subscribe now!