The three-second rule is something most of us have heard growing up. But is it true that you can eat something that's been on the floor for less than three seconds, or is it just a myth?
YOU’RE about to eat your favourite snack when you accidentally drop it on the floor. Some say it is still safe to eat if you pick it up within three seconds. Is the "three-second rule" true?
Verdict:
FALSE
It’s a pity to accidentally drop your favourite food on the floor, but it may be for your own good to just throw it away.
This is because the three-second rule - where it is supposedly safe to eat food that has fallen on the floor if you pick it up within three or several seconds - is not true.
"Unfortunately, this 'rule' is a myth!
"Even if the contact time is shorter than three seconds, the surface of the food item would have been contaminated, for example, by microbes," read an article on the Singapore Food Agency website, debunking the belief.
Calling the rule "nonsense", microbiologist Philip Tierno of the New York University School of Medicine also rubbished the rule in a report published on the Business Insider.
"If you drop some food stuff there (on the floor), don't eat it," Tierno said.
He added that unless you're religiously sanitising your floor, you shouldn't eat any food that touches it because it's teeming with all kinds of viruses and bacteria.
"Not only does this include nasty germs you've tracked into your home from your shoes, but also lingering germs that have hopped onto the floor from your toilet, your pets, and even food from your own kitchen (raw chicken is by far one of the worst offenders)," read the report.
References:
1. https://www.sfa.gov.sg/food-for-thought/article/detail/the-'three-second'-rule
2. https://www.businessinsider.com/three-second-rule-food-contamination-2016-3
