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If you’re tempted to eat food you’ve dropped on the floor, you may want to think again: A new study disproved the “5-second rule,” or the idea that food is safe to eat off the floor if you pick it up fast enough, the researchers said.
Turns out, bacteria from a surface can transfer to food very quickly, in less than a second in some cases, the study found.
“The 5-second rule is a significant oversimplification of what actually happens when bacteria transfer from a surface to food,” study co-author Donald Schaffner, a microbiologist and professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said in a statement. “Bacteria can contaminate instantaneously.” Continue reading
