Dropped your food? It's okay to pick it up and eat it in 5 seconds

Food that has fallen on the ground can be safe to eat, but you need to keep a few factors in mind.

The thing about being a foodie is that your hands are usually full of food, and dropping a few French fries on the ground happens more often than people can imagine. But rarely do we think twice before bending down, and picking up those fries within a few seconds--and then put them in our mouths like nothing happened.

The neat freaks out there might go 'eew' at this sort of a gesture, but most of us actually believe in the 5 second rule, or its Indian version--Ram or bhoot. These rules dictate that if you pick up food immediately after it's fallen down, say 5 seconds, it's okay to eat it.

But how can such a rule be accepted by medical science? After all, isn't the floor one of the places that are mostly full of germs that lead to diseases like salmonella and E. coli? Wouldn't picking food off the floor, no matter how short a duration it spent on that surface, make it an easy carrier of pathogens?

You might think so, but repeated researches have proved that the 5 second rule actually holds true. A study conducted at the University of Illinois in 2003 took swabs from floors around the campus. Analyses of these samples showed that dry floors contained very little bacteria. So, if food came in contact with such floors for a few seconds, it really wouldn't have much chance of getting contaminated.

A number of studies show that the 5 second rule actually works. 

Recently, Professor Anthony Hilton, a germ expert at Aston University (United Kingdom), has proved once again that the 5 second rule rarely ever goes wrong. In fact, he's going to show exactly how the 5 second rule works at The Big Bang Fair to be held this week in Birmingham. "Our research has shown that the nature of the floor surface, the type of food dropped on the floor and the length of time it spends on the floor can all have an impact on the number [of germs] that can transfer," he was quoted by the Evening Standard.

If that's really the case, what are the things we need to keep in mind while going Ram or bhoot on the food we accidentally dropped?

1. Make sure the floor isn't at a public place. If your kitchen floor is regularly cleaned with disenfectants, and you drop something there, chances are that it won't catch any germs within 5 seconds. The same can't be said about roadside eateries or public transportation like metros and buses.

2. The kind of food that you've dropped also matters. If you've dropped dry dishes like French fries or chips, the 5 second rule will work. But if you've dropped a slice of bread slathered with jam or cheese spread, or a piece of gooey cake, chances are that germs will accumulate very quickly. It's best to just let go of these dishes once they fall on the ground.

3. A wet floor has more germs and pathogens. If you've dropped any kind of food on a wet surface, it will be covered in germs no matter how quick you are.

While experts have time and again shown that the 5 second rule works, it's best to be cautious anyways. Unless you're very hungry, and can't do without the few fries you dropped, just let that morsel go. No amount of greed or saying Ram is going to help you through a stomach infection.