Dropped a piece of food on the floor? Is it really OK to eat if you pick up within five seconds? Is this a myth or is it true?
The trick with the five seconds rule is that if food spends just a few seconds on the floor, dirt and germs won’t have a chance to contaminate it.
So do these five seconds on the floor make a difference?
The answer is not as simple as you may think.
It depends on just how much bacteria can make it from floor to food in a few seconds and just how dirty the floor is.

Who made this five seconds rule?
Julia Child may have contributed to this food myth. Some who watched her cooking show, The French Chef, insist they saw she dropped lamb (or a chicken or a turkey depending on the story teller) on the floor and pick it up, advising that if they were alone in the kitchen, their guests would never know.

In fact it was a potato pancake, and it fell on the stovetop, not on the floor. Julia returned it to the pan, with the words “But you can always pick it up and if you are alone in the kitchen, who is going to see?”
There are some studies that say women are more likely than men to eat food that had been dropped on the floor.

Some tests lead to the conclusion that the amount of bacteria transferred to food didn’t depend much on how long the food was in contact with the floor. What mattered was the overall amount of bacteria.
What kind of floor are we talking about was also important.

Carpets seemed to be a better option.
So there are some chances that eating food you dropped on the floor won’t make you sick. But there are still chances that there is a microorganism that can make you sick on the exact spot where the food dropped.
To conclude research alongside the common sense says that the best thing though is to keep your hands, utensils and other surfaces clean.