The 5 second rule debunked?

Okay, I admit it: I’ve always been an adherent to the ‘5 second rule’ - especially if the food item dropped is something that I particularly like. A chocolate truffle - get away from it, it’s mine! Boiled okra - maybe not.

I was fascinated to read the other day that tests done by students at Connecticut College - all in the interest of advancing serious culinary science of course - demonstrated that the nasty critters have a harder time leaping from floor to food than we’d assumed.

The two cell and molecular biology students dropped wet items ( sliced apple) on the floor and then dry items (skittles) on a dry floor and then doing whatever voodoo that they do as scientists measured the microbes that had managed to contaminate the target food.

Well, they concluded that the wet item could go as much as 30 seconds before measureable contamination occurred and the Skittles went considerably longer. In fact, Skittles seem to be something of a bacteria repellent. Which proves what I’m been saying for a long time: faux foods will survive nuclear winter and thus are not meant to be eaten.

But I believe that context plays a roll here.

My kitchen floor is generally pretty clean. I mean, my Jack Russell Terrier eats off of it all the time. After 15 years, she’s still around, so how bad could it be. Same goes for the living room floor. But here’s the rub: what if it was the bathroom floor? You’re still a good housekeeper, and we can assume you clean all floors without discrimination. The bathroom floor shouldn’t be any less clean and in fact, probably sees a bit less foot traffic than the kitchen. Ahhhh, but it’s about the function of the room, perhaps?

What about the great outdoors? We’ve all been on that camping trip to the woods and seen, in slo-mo the hot dog slip off the stick onto the dirt. What about that? Kind of depends on how many hot dogs are left in the cooler and how hungry you are doesn’t it? I’ve been known to brush it off and press onward and I’m still here nearly 55 years later … with, perhaps, a few more minerals from good old dirt than I might otherwise have had.

I have some dear friends that I’ve known for 30 years. They are two Chinese brothers who own a long established automotive garage here in town. Although they are just like the rest of us, hygiene-wise, in their homes and persons, the kitchen in that garage is nothing short of disgusting. I won’t let my dog run loose in there since I caught her one day with a mouth full of dried up dead mouse. You just try washing out a dogs mouth with soap.

I’ve sat in there with them while they ate lunch, and occasionally they’ll offer me a bite of something Chinese and yummy - but I can’t do it. No matter how much I know, intellectually that I won’t die from this stuff, well I can’t. And if the best Cabernet flavored chocolate bar on the planet fell on that floor, if I could retrieve it in a nano-second, I’d let it go.

At the end of the day, I think context is everything with the 5 second rule. This is also the way I think about a lot of other things, like people’s behavior, advertising, politics, food, sex, dogs. Pretty much everything. I don’t see the world in black and white, yes or no, right or wrong. It’s always somewhere on a spectrum or contimuum between two ends or extremes. During a campaign season like this one, that might be a good thing to remember.

maven