Admit it. You apply the five second rule. You use it for yourself and you use it for your kids. And do you really even count to five? I don't. This article sites two different studies of the five second rule. The results? You don't want to know.
I'm not kidding. It is gross. Of course they infected the surfaces that they dropped things on, and of course the food they left on the floor for five seconds was waaaaaaaaaay less contaminated than the stuff they left down for ten seconds, but that doesn't change the fact that gummi bears and cookies both picked up E. coli bacteria within five seconds.
Maybe we should rethink this rule. Harold McGee of The New York Times says we might want to rethink eating that piece of food even if it was only on the floor for five seconds.
Of course, if it is chocolate it might still be worth it.
