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The Three Second Rule
This will give you the lowdown on the “three second rule” that governs our picking back food from the floor!
Well, you can fess up any day about it but what’s the worry?! Everyone has done it! The top chunks of a hamburger fall off while you’re trying not to trip over, or a biscuit slips through your hands. We say that after three seconds on the ground food will really start to spoil. But is it really the case?
Most of us has heard of and aboded by this “three second rule”, but is it true that when you pick food up from the floor before three seconds no harmful bacteria can get a grip on your food yet? Well, “What’s Good For You” on Channel Nine has put this to the test…
Three cookies and three banana slices are put on three plates, one of each on each plate. This is to determine whether the texture of a food helps the bacteria stick on. Another cookie and banana is left alone because it is the control.
One plate of food is dropped on the ground, and is left there for three minutes. Two and a half minutes later the second plate is dropped, and with three seconds left the last plate is dropped.
The specimens were then wrapped up and sent to a lab. Over there the bacterial were smeared on agar plates and left to grow for a prolonged period of time.
The results:
Three minutes:
The cookie had 10 to 100 colonies of bacteria. So did the banana.
Thirty seconds:
They both had the same as the three minute sample.
Three seconds:
Cookie: 5-10
Banana: 5-10
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The experiment proves that there is no such thing as the three second rule. Take in mind that bacteria are infinitesimally small and one colony contains over 1 million bacteria which is enough to make you terribly sick! This also demonstrated that bacteria even found a foothold on these dry biscuits! So next time if your food drops on the floor, don’t take chances with your health. Bin it.
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4 Comments
I always eat my cookie from the floor, don’t care about the seconds. Unless you are dining in a public toilet, or your kitchen is like a public toilet, the food from the floor will hardly make any harm to you, we are resistant to such bacteria. Unless your life has been sterile until now, of course.
yah, dalia.. is correct, in fact, your mouth right now should be swimming in bacteria!
in our country we do have a similar doing about foods that fell from the ground, You are safe to eat it not more than a minute after it fell.
I’m constantly arguing with my family about this very subject
Great article.