That '5 second rule' my buddy swears by nearly cost him a hospital visit

I was at a cookout last weekend in my backyard, and my friend Tom dropped a piece of burger on the patio. He picked it up in like 2 seconds, blew on it, and ate it. I told him that's not safe because bacteria don't wait 5 seconds, they hop on instantly. He laughed it off and said he's done it for 30 years with no issue. Well, three days later he called me from urgent care with food poisoning so bad he was hooked to an IV. The doctor asked him straight up, 'did you eat something that fell on the ground?' and he had to admit it. Has anyone else had a friend get burned by believing that rule too hard?

3 comments

3 Comments

linda5001mo ago

Had a buddy who did the same thing with a slice of pizza off his dirty kitchen floor, swore his immune system was "built different." Spent the next two days glued to his bathroom floor regretting every life choice that led him to that moment. Now he treats dropped food like it's radioactive waste and won't even touch it if it lands on a clean plate.

claire_wells871mo ago

Did he ever figure out what made him sick though? I get that kitchen floors can be nasty, but sometimes it's not the floor that's the problem. I've eaten things off my own clean counter that gave me trouble because the food itself was old or handled wrong. Your buddy might be blaming the wrong thing. If he's that strict now, fair enough, but I think people get a little too scared of their own homes. A clean floor isn't a petri dish, especially if you wipe it down regularly.

umamartin5d ago

Honestly I think people get way too wound up about this stuff. I've dropped food on my kitchen floor a hundred times and eaten it, never been sick once. But I also know my floor gets wiped down every night after dinner, so it's not like I'm eating off a gas station bathroom floor. The real issue is probably just bad luck or maybe the food was already going bad. I'd rather risk a few germs than throw away a perfectly good slice of pizza because it touched a clean floor for two seconds.