Is It Safe to Eat Food That’s Dropped to the Floor?

Do you know this one? You’re looking forward to a tasty snack, want to shove it into your mouth with pleasure – and then this: At the last second, the food haps crashes and lands on the floor. Pick it up quickly and eat it? Or rather throw it away?

We used to say, jokingly, “Three-second rule” in such cases. – …and we’d eat that piece of chocolate real quick. The thought behind it: What’s on the floor for up to three seconds can’t be contaminated.

We grew older, we became more mature and wiser – and one day it dawned on us: the “three seconds rule” is surely complete nonsense. It’s as if the germs were standing next to our fallen piece of chocolate with a stopwatch and only haunt it after three seconds. There can’t be anything to it. Or can there be?

The “three-second rule” really works

Now an expert reveals: Yes, the “three-second rule” is really not as stupid as it may sound to some adults! Professor Anthony Hilton from Aston University in Birmingham, England, now told the Independent: “If the food touches the floor for a few seconds, we actually have nothing to fear.” However, it also depends on the surface condition of the floor how “dangerous” the consumption becomes.

In addition, Hilton makes it clear: “Food that was on the floor for a few moments can never be completely risk-free” – but it is still less of a concern than many people think. Coarse dirt and visible dirt should of course be wiped off or not used.

In other countries, our “three-second rule” is also known as a conservative “two-second rule” or as a “five-second rule” (for the very brave).