You're cooking the perfect dinner, and all of a sudden, bang! – one of your key ingredients falls to the ground.
Although your most arrogant loved ones can quickly pick up food and put it back in the pan or eat it (while sticking closely to the five-second rule), it's fair to wonder if food that's been on the floor for a few seconds actually could pose a risk. After all, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, we all think much more about germs.
But there are clear risks to eating food off the floor, no matter how clean your floors are or how strictly you enforce the no-shoes rule in your kitchen.
There could be harmful pathogens in your soil
There are more types of bacteria that live in your home than in your garden.
In fact, the diversity of fungi and bacteria was 50 percent higher indoors than outdoors, according to a September 2015 study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Some of them have negative effects on human health. and they can end up on your floors.
Nobody wants to waste food, but in reality, there is an absolute possibility of getting sick from eating food that has been dropped. Your body has a defense system, but it can only take care of things up to a point.
For example, if you made raw chicken for lunch, your soil can harbor salmonella, a bacteria that can cause diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps within 8 to 72 hours.
Or, if you made tacos with ground beef last night, your kitchen floors could have a harmful strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria called E. coli O157: H7, which can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps and pain, and nausea. vomiting three to four days after exposure.
And if you have a pet, they can bring bacteria into your kitchen depending on what they step on outside (or in their own litter box).
For example, the feces of an infected cat can transmit Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that causes a disease that can lead to serious health problems in high-risk people. Symptoms resemble those of the flu and include muscle aches or pains that last for months, as well as blurred vision and red eyes.
Pets can transmit pathogens to humans through the soil. There are many ways that contamination reaches your tiles. So it is a general rule that if it falls on the ground, it is better not to use that food.
Even walking around your house can spread germs, so taking your shoes off when entering does not guarantee that your floors are safe.
If someone has diarrhea due to a foodborne illness, there could be contamination on the bathroom floor . You could be spreading that potential pathogen throughout your home.
Can you get COVID-19 from eating food off the ground?
The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is believed to spread primarily from person to person through respiratory droplets. Although you can get COVID-19 by touching food that has the virus on it and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes, the risk is considered very low .
Bacteria can be transferred to food instantly
Unfortunately, if you've been citing the five-second rule as a reason to chew food after it has been dropped, this is not true.
In less than five seconds, you have already collected the contamination from the soil.
In some cases, the transfer of bacteria to food begins in less than a second , according to an October 2016 study in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Although the researchers found that a longer contact time results in greater transfer of bacteria, factors such as the type of food and the surface it falls on also play a role.
Of four different types of foods analyzed in the study (watermelon, bread, bread and butter, and gummy candies), watermelon picked up the most contamination and gummy candies the least.
Wet food will pick up more contamination from the soil compared to dry food. Moisture actually improves the amount of pollution that is lifted from the ground.
The study also found that carpet has a very low transfer rate compared to tile and stainless steel, and that the transfer rate of wood tends to be more variable.
In terms of whether the bacterial load in food can make you sick or not, it will vary widely from case to case, but it is important to note that bacteria in your soil can add to other bacteria that are already present in food.
Cleaning the floor does not completely disinfect it
Even if your floors are spotless, it doesn't mean they're germ-free.
The word clean means that something is clean of visible dirt, but sanitary means that it contains safe levels of microorganisms. You will never have a sterile floor with absolutely no organisms in your kitchen, and some pathogens can survive for many months.
Also, there are many places in your soil where bacteria can camp, even if you clean it regularly.
If you have hardwood floors in your kitchen, pathogens can be in the cracks in the surface. If it's grout tile , that grout isn't really that easy to clean and there are places for pathogens to reside in it.
The actual duration of a pathogen will depend on a variety of factors, including the type of soil you have and how absorbent it is, as well as temperature and humidity. It is highly variable, it will vary from house to house, coast to coast and country to country. In other words, the risk of eating food off the kitchen floor is not a "one size fits all" scenario, and you will never really know how hygienic your floor is.
It could affect your high-risk loved ones
Even if you claim to have a stomach of steel, if you get sick with a particular pathogen, you could endanger the high-risk people around you.
We've always heard people say, "Food can fall on the ground, but I'll eat it and I'll be fine." But you may be living with a high-risk person, like a child under the age of six or an adult over the age of 70. They are more susceptible to disease because they have a weaker immune system or a not fully developed immune system in the case of babies.
So how bad is it to follow the 5 second rule?
It is definitely a bad idea to eat food that falls on the ground. I would never recommend eating it. When you drop food on the ground, it is a shame, but you should throw it away for safety reasons and try to be a little more careful when preparing food.
Even if you've never knowingly gotten sick in the past from eating food off the ground, that doesn't mean it always is. I'm not saying that you are going to get sick all the time, but there is a greater chance that you will get sick. Perhaps in the past you had a bout of diarrhea a few hours after eating a piece of food off the ground and didn't realize the connection.
