Some people believe that if you raise the fallen food on the floor for five seconds, nothing happens — it is quite possible to have. Browser BBC Earth explores the question of how true this “rule”.
The other day I dropped a piece of chocolate, and in my head flashed the thought of how much bacteria is now stuck to my food. However, dirt on the chocolate, I did not see, so feel free to sent it into his mouth.
In the end, the floor in my kitchen pretty clean, besides the chocolate has been there for less than five seconds.
As you certainly know, I have five seconds,” which says that if you raise the fallen food on the floor within five seconds, it remains usable. As they say, quickly raised the fallen doesn’t count.
And still: whether correctly I made, eating chocolate, or together with him, I stuffed in his mouth a whole bunch of dangerous germs?
To begin, we asked readers of BBC Earth, and that’s what they said.
Adam Harmsworth believes that this rule holds true. “In bacteria and other microorganisms certainly well developed sense of time,” he said. To your mouth, Adam…
Gary birch tells us that he follows the rule of three seconds, however, for a completely different reason: “During this time, the fallen food usually manages to eat my dog”.
Manuel Rodriguez wrote that he was a poor student, and so instead of the five seconds rule follows the five-minute rule.
But the rest are showing much more rigor. Corinne Howard is uncompromising: “Everything that is not immediately got in my mouth goes in the trash!”
“Bacteria just a few microseconds to get to the fallen food,” says John Bedet. — Much more sense would be rule zero seconds”.
And lane Jasper believes that all “depends on the food and how hungry you are”.
To put an end to the debate, I asked this question to scientists who spetsializiruyutsya on the study of microbes.
Would they have raised the floor with bread, pizza, or perhaps sticky toffee? And if you lick the toilet seat?
First of all, you need to learn a few facts. Bacteria do not lay on the floor, waiting for, do not drop them any food.
Actually they live everywhere, even if you’ve just washed the floor. As noted by Adam Taylor, “from a scientific point of view no rule to five seconds does not exist. If the food has touched the surface of the at least one nanosecond, she’s already infected”.
In contact with the floor for food, of course, sticks dirt, and along with it the microbes, said Jack Gilbert, an ecologist-microbiologist from the University of Chicago in Illinois (USA).
According to a study carried out in 2015, every moment at home in the dust fumbling about 9 thousands of different types of microorganisms, including 7 thousand different bacteria.
However, most of them completely harmless. They are always with us on hand, on the face, in the house.
We are constantly shedding bacteria through the skin and through the air we breathe.
“From microorganisms will not hide. That’s the whole point. Many bacteria get into our body with every breath,” says Gilbert.
The scientists were able to determine their number. As was established during the special studies, each person throws away every hour in the environment around 38 million bacterial cells.
And at the same time, as pointed out by Gilbert, we have more than hundreds of years assert that the microorganisms are dangerous and that “they should all be destroyed”.
“We are so worried about the mud and not realize that to catch the pathogen is possible by pure chance, though not too happy,” — says the scientist.
Gilbert himself quietly eats food raised from the floor, provided that it occurred in a relatively safe place. “If I dropped it in the pesthouse, then no, I wouldn’t have to raise it,” he says.
What’s more, Gilbert says that in most cases, even if you lick the floor or toilet seat, hardly can get sick.
The risk is always present
However, if someone in the house is sick or if it happens in a country known for poor hygienic conditions, it is not recommended.
Of course, among these microorganisms are pathogens. But if even one of them and settled on the floor, his counterparts with the same success can fancy the kitchen table, doorknob or any other place in the house.
In this case, you can get sick, even if you do not eat food picked up off the ground.
Therefore, you should just stick to the usual precautions. If, for your trouble, on the floor was the bacteria Salmonella, infection is possible even in the case if you eat a product that’s been on the floor less than five seconds.
According to a study conducted in 2006, it was found that the probability of settlement on food Salmonella for five seconds lower than one minute, but the risk is still present.
Contact with microbes useful
Between humans and bacteria there is no magic barrier so even the big tidy people can’t avoid contact with them.
In fact, contact with germs might actually be useful.
“If you drop food not in the doctor’s office and not in a public toilet, contact with microbes useful” — says Catherine Amato, an employee of northwestern University in Illinois (USA).
This is because in the process of evolution we are constantly surrounded by germs. The researchers — among them’amato — more and more convinced that microorganisms played a significant role in the development of our species.
Microbes from the external environment enter the human body in a very early age, including through contact with dirt.
Already two years the microflora of the child becomes approximately the same as that of an adult.
“Accordingly, if the fallen were on food microbes, it may contribute to the development of a healthy immune system, says Amato. — I’d say with a raised floor product it is possible to eat”.
Natalie Henning agrees: “If being afraid of bacteria, the immune system will not form”.
In other words, the five second rule is nonsense.
If your house is really infested dangerous microbe, adherence to this rule will not insulate you from the risk of getting sick.
But in all other cases it is raised off the floor food is quite normal.
However, the toilet seat I still, perhaps, to lick will not…
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