We all know that it is significant not to waste food. According to Wikipedia, wasted food (raw or cooked) costs the U.K. ã10.2 billion annually ($ 15.5 billion). In the United States, 15 percent of all edible food ends up untouched or unopened, which amounts to $ 43 billion in waste. In such cases, you'd think the five second rule (picking up dropped food "in time") appeal to the cash conscious. Yet the Chicago Tribune reports that food scientists such as Paul Dawson of Clemson University assert that the five second rule should be discarded along with the pallets of food many restaurants and grocery stores see fit to throw away rather than donate to homeless shelters.
The five second rule should be a zero second rule, says Dawson
Since salmonella and other harmful bacteria can live on a dry surface for as long as a month, Dawson may be right. Yet Connecticut College student researchers claim that their experiments with apple slices and Skittles candies on the floor of a collegiate dining hall prove the five second rule's merit. The apple took a minute to become infected, when the Skittles took four minutes more. Another student collegiate study performed at the University of Maine showed that the five second rule could reduce food waste and improve child immune systems.
Not time, but location
The five second rule is pseudo-science, claim Dawson and supporting researchers. Kitchen and bathroom floors are littered with harmful germs, according to nearly any study one would care to name. But Dawson's work doesn't mean any dropped food is gone; pick up the bagel that just hit the sidewalk and brush it off if you like. Believe it or not, that sidewalk is probably much less germ-ridden than the floors of your home.
Five seconds as part of your mind
According to the Chicago Tribune, how much a person really wants what they were eating is the real indicator of whether they'll pick it back up. Broccoli will sit when Pepperidge Farm can be remembered as part of your mouth, claim studies. It is also interesting to note that research seems to disprove gender stereotypes: women are more likely to eat dropped food than men.
Find more info on this topic
featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2010/07/debunking-the-fivesecond-dropped-food-rule.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_waste
