Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, VA – Uh, you might want to rethink the '5-second rule'
Uh, you might want to rethink the ’5-second rule’
0 Comments | The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, VA, Feb 28, 2010 | by KIM ODE
By Kim Ode
Minneapolis) Star Tribune
Oops. If your family has lived, or at least survived, by the five- second rule, researchers at San Diego State University say you may be living on borrowed time.
You know the rule: If food falls to the floor and you grab it within five seconds, you can still eat it. Without, you know, dying.
Granted, the study was funded by Clorox Co., but experiments in dropping carrots and sippy cups on a typical floor found that germs do indeed attach themselves within five seconds.
You gotta love this research: Three baby carrots were dropped into a kitchen sink, onto a tiled floor, a carpeted floor, a table and a countertop. A control carrot remained undropped. In each case, germs glommed on to the veggie in five seconds.
The worst? The countertop, followed by carpeted floor and the tiled floor
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