# The Five Second Rule



## Rocklobster (Apr 10, 2011)

Who here uses the Five Second Rule? Normally, I don't have a problem, but we have a big hairy dog, so I have to give it a hair check, and if it comes up negative, then it is good to go.


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## Selkie (Apr 10, 2011)

No 5 second rule here. 

If it hits anything other than the skillet/pot/grill or the plate, it belongs to the dog!


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## Aunt Bea (Apr 10, 2011)

When I was a kid we used it for everything including soup and ice cream.


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## taxlady (Apr 10, 2011)

Aunt Bea said:


> When I was a kid we used it for everything including soup and ice cream.



Soup?


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## taxlady (Apr 10, 2011)

Here it's a 10 second rule, with the hair check. Usually it's cat hair, sometimes it's mine.


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## medtran49 (Apr 10, 2011)

Ted Allen's show on the Food Network, the science thingy show, don't remember the name, Food Detectives maybe?, did a show on the 5-second rule. The amount of bacteria that grew on the 5-second rule piece of food compared to the undropped food was staggeringly HUGE. Just an FYI. I'll admit though sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, depends on what it is and mostly if can be washed off and then get cooked, especially after watching that segment.


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## pacanis (Apr 10, 2011)

Yes, it depends on what it is... and if I have more, lol.


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## Katie H (Apr 10, 2011)

Yes, we apply the 5-second rule here, but it's just the two of us and no inside animals to add to the flavor.  The kitchen floor also gets scrubbed at least once a week, sometimes two, so our margin of safety is a bit better than it might be.


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## taxlady (Apr 10, 2011)

I never thought the rule was about bacteria. I thought it was so you knew it was the bit you just dropped, not something from yesterday.


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## CraigC (Apr 10, 2011)

Note: The 5 second rule can be extended. This is usually based upon the number of "pops" you've had before applying the rule. Since you won't remenber and nobody else saw anything, you're good to go!

Craig


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## MSC (Apr 10, 2011)

LOL, we usually observe the 5-second rule and so far still surviving!  And there has been a fair amount of scientific testing done on it, here's the wikipedia link FYI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-second_rule


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## pacanis (Apr 10, 2011)

One of my favorite commercials from last year.

YouTube - 2010 Nick Saban "Little Debbie" Commercial For College Gameday


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## PrincessFiona60 (Apr 10, 2011)

Only if it can be washed off, I have cats.  At work...never!


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## Somebunny (Apr 10, 2011)

Depends on how clean I perceive my floor to be.  We don't usually wear street shoes in the house and have no indoor pets, but I'm not eating say....a hunk of scrambled egg or a piece of buttered or worse yet peanut buttered toast that lands upside down! Lol!  Things that can be washed off....maybe.


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## Alix (Apr 10, 2011)

Seems to me I saw a bit on TV a while back that said you had about 30 seconds for moist food and almost a minute for dry food. Can't give you a reference for that though, sorry. 

We have an incredibly hairy dog and two cats and 4 humans living here. If I get to it before the dog does its a rare day! But yep, 5 second rule applies here.


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## licia (Apr 10, 2011)

We don't use the 5 second rule here. If it hits the floor - it hits the garbage.


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## taxlady (Apr 10, 2011)

Alix said:


> Seems to me I saw a bit on TV a while back that said you had about 30 seconds for moist food and almost a minute for dry food. Can't give you a reference for that though, sorry.
> 
> We have an incredibly hairy dog and two cats and 4 humans living here. If I get to it before the dog does its a rare day! But yep, 5 second rule applies here.



A friend of mine said he saw a study that gave about the same info as that bit you saw on TV.

At my house, the rule regarding food on the floor and pets: it's fair game while it's on the floor, but it isn't automatically yours. I dropped a whole roast beef and raced the dog for it (and won). 

Doggy got some bits that I thought would be better to cut off.

I don't use the 5 or 10 second rule when there are guests. Okay, in the case of a whole roast beef, I would tell the guests what had happened.

If it's something like mayo, if a pet doesn't show up soon enough, I'll holler, "Hay, someone come clean up this mayo for me!" 

Current cat doesn't like "people food", so he's useless for cleanup.


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## pacanis (Apr 10, 2011)

One piece of food hitting the floor that I let a dog have, means I need to "drop" two more pieces  
They know that nobody is getting it if they make a dash for it. They are good that way. They just give me the look while waiting for me to decide.


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## Somebunny (Apr 10, 2011)

Our Cocker Spaniel used to sit at my feet waiting for food to drop, he wasn't to discerning he would pretty much eat anything.  His favorite tho oddly was cabbage,  I would lose a lot to him while shredding for coleslaw....no 5 second rule necessary!  Except maybe the 5 second warning you might need to clear the room after the cabbage started working in his system!  Rolf!!!


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## pacanis (Apr 10, 2011)

lol, that was funny.


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## Andy M. (Apr 10, 2011)

I follow the rule.  If I'm too slow, I just count slower, especially if no one's looking.

When we had kids in highchairs and a dog, he would camp under the highchair and saved us a lot of time and effort in cleanup after dinner.


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## FrankZ (Apr 10, 2011)

For me it just depends on what it is and how well the cats have been shedding lately.  

What's the time limit on something dropped into food?   This morning the girl dropped some of my change into my coffee.  The look on her face was great, and she just got me another cup of coffee.


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## Sprout (Apr 10, 2011)

Mostly I use it for dry food or food that can be rinsed, but if it's something _really_ good that's moist but can be brushed off, I make exceptions. We have no pets and take our shoes off at the door. I only use the rule at home, not in public places. 
When my daughter was first crawling, like most babies, she put *everything* in her mouth. I even saw her licking the carpet once or twice. The way I see it, my immune system is far more advanced than hers was, so if she survived it along with millions of other babies, I will too. Though I agree, I would never serve something to a guest that I dropped on the floor unless it's something like the example of a whole roast (then they get fair warning). If I dropped it, I'm eating it.


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## Barbara L (Apr 11, 2011)

FrankZ said:


> For me it just depends on what it is and how well the cats have been shedding lately.
> 
> What's the time limit on something dropped into food?   This morning the girl dropped some of my change into my coffee.  The look on her face was great, and she just got me another cup of coffee.


Did you get your change back?  

I'm pretty much like most of you. If I am at home, it is just for me, and it can be wiped or rinsed off I will eat it. I probably swallow a ton of cat and dog hair when I'm sleeping (eww!), but I won't knowingly eat it!


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## FrankZ (Apr 11, 2011)

Barbara L said:


> Did you get your change back?




Actually, no.  Mind you it was just a couple of pennies and the look on her face was worth the price of admission.


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## Alix (Apr 11, 2011)

I just beat the dog out in a race for a piece of bacon I dropped. HA! I mean come on...BACON! He was mighty ticked at me and stomped off to his bed. Heh heh heh. 

Barbara, I don't even want to contemplate the amount of pet hair I've ingested in my lifetime.


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## FrankZ (Apr 11, 2011)

Alix said:


> Barbara, I don't even want to contemplate the amount of pet hair I've ingested in my lifetime.



It just adds that je ne sais quoi...


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## Alix (Apr 11, 2011)

FrankZ said:


> It just adds that je ne sais quoi...



Indeed it does! I think perhaps we should do a GCC Pet Hair challenge!


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## LPBeier (Apr 11, 2011)

I used to observe it until culinary school.  No, they didn't teach us how bad it was, quite the opposite.

In the restaurant kitchen a tray of prepped chicken Parmesan fell face down on the kitchen floor.  Chef picked the tray up, threw all the chicken back on it and barked orders to fill in any coating problems and add new eggplant and cheese.

And no, I was on the vegetable station that day so it wasn't me! 

Even though we have the kitchen blocked off from the dogs, I still don't use the 5 second rule, though if a raw veggie falls I will thoroughly wash it off and stick it in the pot!


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## taxlady (Apr 11, 2011)

Alix said:


> I just beat the dog out in a race for a piece of bacon I dropped. HA! I mean come on...BACON! He was mighty ticked at me and stomped off to his bed. Heh heh heh.
> 
> Barbara, I don't even want to contemplate the amount of pet hair I've ingested in my lifetime.



Bacon cooking smells so good, that we have a rule at our house. You aren't allowed to cook bacon unless you cook enough for everyone to at least get a taste, four legged friends included. Weirdo Shreddy (my cat) doesn't like "people food", even bacon! -


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## CraigC (Apr 11, 2011)

I really had never been around cats until I met Karen. She had this DLH named Mitty (short for Mitzubishi). I don't remember what I was making, but I was peeling and deveining some shrimp at the kitchen sink, when Mitty jumps onto the kitchen counter. Mind you she has full armour. Didn't get the chance to apply the "rule". In the blink of an eye this cat snags a U-10 out of my hand! Before my shock was over, she had most of it gone.

Craig


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## PrincessFiona60 (Apr 11, 2011)

CraigC said:


> I really had never been around cats until I met Karen. She had this DLH named Mitty (short for Mitzubishi). I don't remember what I was making, but I was peeling and deveining some shrimp at the kitchen sink, when Mitty jumps onto the kitchen counter. Mind you she has full armour. Didn't get the chance to apply the "rule". In the blink of an eye this cat snags a U-10 out of my hand! Before my shock was over, she had most of it gone.
> 
> Craig


 
I have to hide behind a door to get any chicken or pastrami, Latte' really likes pastrami.  I have to watch my food every step of the way!  She's much faster than I am.


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## PattY1 (Apr 11, 2011)

I never heard of the "5 second rule" until a few years ago. A friend and her toddler were having Spaghetti with me one night and he dropped his fork. She asked me if "I" had the 5 second rule in my house, as if I did she would have given that fork back to her baby. After she explained it to me I got up and got that child a clean fork.


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## roadfix (Apr 11, 2011)

.


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## Barbara L (Apr 11, 2011)

PrincessFiona60 said:


> I have to hide behind a door to get any chicken or pastrami, Latte' really likes pastrami.  I have to watch my food every step of the way!  She's much faster than I am.


We had a cat, Mr. Frodo, who would practically go into your mouth to try to get chicken!


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## PrincessFiona60 (Apr 11, 2011)

Barbara L said:


> We had a cat, Mr. Frodo, who would practically go into your mouth to try to get chicken!


 
The only reason Latte' can't help herself to butter is...she doesn't have opposable thumbs.


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## buckytom (Apr 12, 2011)

Alix said:


> I just beat the dog



omg, that's terrible!!!

lol.


there no real time limit here, i guess. 2 or 3 seconds tops, but that depends on how moist and/or washable something is. also, where it dropped and how hard or soft the food is. 

lots of individual variables.

for instance something like a hard boiled egg is washable, but if it falls hard on a surface, bits of dirt might get pushed into the soft white and you get that tooth cracking crunch later on. yummy. and we ate many meals on the beach. i could probably poop out a sand castle if i wanted.

my mom used to say that we'd eaten whole animals worth of hair in our lifetimes, and we were only kids at the time.

i wonder what more"primitive" people in africa and australia think about the 5 second rule as they cook their food without removing hair, directly on the logs of the fire?

lol, or the burning dung.


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## Alix (Apr 12, 2011)

buckytom said:


> and we ate many meals on the beach. i could probably poop out a sand castle if i wanted.



Well that's a talent you don't see every day. If you ever try make sure someone has a camera! 

roadfix, OMG, I LOVE that flow chart. Perfect. 

I will also admit to dropping a steak on the grass in front of the grill, brushing off the grass bits, etc and slapping on the BBQ and noting it will be "mine". (Incidentally for anyone keeping track, the BBQ is nowhere near the dog's biffy )

I feel like sending out an invite to dinner now and watching everyone's faces turn a bit green! LOL


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## taxlady (Apr 12, 2011)

roadfix said:


> .



Great flowchart! 

I don't know about the raw steak. if nothing is embedded and can't be wiped off, why not. It's going to be cooked, which would kill anything that got on it. Raw ground beef on the other hand ...

I hope everyone knows that they can click the pic to see a bigger version of the flowchart. (Old fogeys like me need the bigger version to read it.)


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## FrankZ (Apr 12, 2011)

taxlady said:


> Great flowchart!
> 
> I don't know about the raw steak. if nothing is embedded and can't be wiped off, why not. It's going to be cooked, which would kill anything that got on it. Raw ground beef on the other hand ...




Cooked could be a matter of debate... 

I am, generally, in the very very rare category with mine...


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## taxlady (Apr 12, 2011)

FrankZ said:


> Cooked could be a matter of debate...
> 
> I am, generally, in the very very rare category with mine...



 

Okay, I know what you mean. But the (possibly dirty) outside gets plenty of heat.


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## FrankZ (Apr 12, 2011)

Meat washes..


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Apr 12, 2011)

Way back in my "Boy Scout" days, we had a contest at camp, where we were expected to cook pancakes over a fire, race to a spot between two trees where a pole was lashed 10 foot high, and flip the pancake over the pole and back into the pan.  If you dropped the pancake on the dirt, you were expected to pick out the bark , dirt, and twigs, and then, chow down.  Surprise, surprise, we're all still alive.

I once saw an episode of "That's Incredible" where a teenage guy had no arms.  This guy could remove his bread from the wrapper, butter it, place meat or whatever onto the sandwich, and spread condiments on it with a knife, all while using his bare feet.  He also picked the sandwich up with the same and ate it.

I wouldn't be eating a sandwich if it touched my feet!

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef (Apr 24, 2011)

The five second rule never works at my house. I have 5 cats, and anything that hits the floor for five seconds accumulates enough hair to build a brand new cat!


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Apr 25, 2011)

Sir_Loin_of_Beef said:


> The five second rule never works at my house. I have 5 cats, and anything that hits the floor for five seconds accumulates enough hair to build a brand new cat!


  I have one cat and that's nearly true at my house.  We inherited it when our youngest daughter moved out of the house, after she was expressly forbidden from keeping a kitten!  She found a way around our rule by adopting one that she kept at her (at the time) boyfriend's house.  When they broke up, the mother of said boyfriend said "Sprout, take that cat out of my house!"  My DD then found that she was allergic to cats and couldn't take it away when she moved away (heavy sigh).  so we ended up with a cat, not something I wanted.  Oh well, as far as cats go, he's a pretty good animal.  Only 15 years to go before my home is pet-free.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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