Five Second Laugh

I was at McDonald Yesterday sitting down eating my Big Mac sandwich with I noticed that someone dropped there fries on the floor. The reached down scooped them up and said 5 second rule. I just chucked for about 5 seconds thinking about this silly post about how long you can actually allow your food to be on the floor.

I'm pretty sure that McDonald actually mops there floor multiple times a day so there should be much bacteria on that nice tile floor but what about all the walking traffic that has trampled all over it.

Maybe the person who walked there last had stepped in some grime out in the street on there way in. Would you lick the bottom of there shoe? Would you take your mouth and put it on the shoe and say... 5 second rule, because this is essentially what chances you take when you pick that up and eat it.

Also remember that since you are eating at McDonald I think that the employees actually have some obligation to make sure you are happy with your stay there. You could just go let them know that you lost your fries on the floor and would like some fresh ones. Or you could simply lie and say your fries are cold and ask for replacements. Now we have all had that happen where we get fries that we just aren't sure how long they have been out of the friar but its a very valid argument.

This is exactly what entertained my Thought for those mere 5 seconds as I chuckled from this clumsy person who cannot hold onto fries.

Food off the Floor - A Reaction to Yahoo's Topic

Abc News, Five-Second Rule: Are You Going to Eat That? Found on Yahoo News, Link to:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=49750&cl=3022850&ch=61492&src=news

The News starts off talking about if food touches the floor is it ok to eat? Two Senior College Students from Connecticut College did a Scientific Experiment on how long it actually takes for food that touches the floor to become covered in Bacteria.

What they did, First they would drop the food on the floor, then they would swab it and try to grow bacteria in a petree dish.

The study showed that it took approximately thirty seconds for bacteria to grow on wet food and sixty seconds for bacteria to grow on dry food. This would mean that the Five-Second Rule actually should be considered the Thirty-Second Rule, or the sixty-second rule.


This consistently begs the question, If it touches the ground for 5 seconds then is it OK to eat? Studies show yes, and I say no.

My reasons for saying know are not unlike the reasons above except that we didn't just drop food on the floor, we took cotton swabs and rubbed them on the floor in one striking motion as to just test the floor for possible bacteria.

First off, this was in Cocoa, Florida, a warm little town which I'm sure promotes bacteria growth much easier then in a cooler environment. Second, we never dropped food on the floor then swabbed it, we actually just swabbed the floor. The reasons for not swabbing the food is because two transfers, from the floor to the food to the swab don't pick up exactly what your are going to be putting in your mouth.

One Swab directly from the floor for less then one-second should produce more efficient results, and display exactly what is on the floor.

Our Experiment:

We took cotton swabs and swabbed the Bathroom Floor, Inside and outside the Dumpster, Carpet, Tile, Toilet, and Sink. Every Swab was swiped once across the object in question for less then one second as if you were painting a small one inch line.

The Test:

We took those swabs and rubbed them on petree dishes, places the growth accelerator and allowed the bacteria to grow in a controlled environment.

Results:

All Items developed some bacteria, but the dumpster actually developed the lest and the second least was the toilet seat. The worst was the Carpet. These results go to show that you actually are picking up bacteria when you drop something on the floor, and just testing the floor at a college in Connecticut is probably not the best place to do a test as they probably mop those floors every day.

The the Five-Second Rule should be Abolished and considered the NO-Second Rule
But the question still arises, How long would you leave food on the floor and still eat it?

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