This post goes out to Marc based on a conversation we had at the Happy Hour.


To eat or not to eat: seniors prove "five-second rule" more like 30
Nicole Moin (left) and Molly Goettsche
May 17, 2007

Seniors Nicole Moin (left) and Molly Goettsche display the results of their "five second rule" research.

You hear it everywhere - the sound of a piece of food hitting the ground, immediately followed by someone yelling, "five-second rule!" The prospective eater must then pick the food up off the floor and make one of life's most difficult decisions: to eat, or not to eat.

Seniors Molly Goettsche and Nicole Moin, both cellular and molecular biology majors, decided that they were no longer going to blindly follow the 'rule,' which stipulates that dropped food will be safe to eat if it stays on the floor for fewer than five seconds.

"The five-second rule appeals to people of all ages, so is widely used, but not very well documented," Goettsche said.

The women decided to test the 'rule' in their microbiology class with Anne Bernhard, the George and Carol Milne Assistant Professor of Biology at Connecticut College.

"We had both just finished our senior theses, so we wanted to do something lighthearted and fun," Moin said, "and we chose the five-second rule, because it applies to everyday life."

Goettsche added that they designed their procedure to test the rule in an everyday environment. Previous research on the rule, she said, was conducted by a University of Illinois researcher in 2003 and involved dropping food items onto e-coli contaminated tiles.

"That is not representative of what actually happens," she said.

Instead, Goettsche and Moin took their food samples - apple slices (wet) and Skittles candies (dry) - to the main Connecticut College dining hall, Harris Refectory, and to the snack bar in the student center. They dropped the foods onto the floors in both locations for five, 10, 30 and 60 second intervals, and also tested them after allowing five minutes to elapse. They then swabbed the foods and placed them onto agar plates designed to cultivate any bacteria that might have attached to the foods.

What Goettsche and Moin discovered may forever change the way people think of the five-second rule. "It should probably be renamed," Goettsche said. "You actually have a little more time."

The women found no bacteria were present on the foods that had remained on the floor for five, 10 or 30 seconds. The apple slices did pick up bacteria after one minute, however, and the Skittles showed a bacterial presence after remaining on the floor for five minutes. The results prove, Goettsche and Moin said, that you can wait at least 30 seconds to pick up wet foods and more than a minute to pick up dry foods before they become contaminated with bacteria.

So the next time you drop your favorite candy, cookie or other goodie you just can't bear to toss out, you can rest assured that all you need to do is yell "five-second rule!" and continue enjoying your treat. Goettsche and Moin certainly will.

For more information contact: Amy Martin (860) 439-2526; a.martin@conncoll.edu

Original Article - http://aspen.conncoll.edu/news/3464.cfm