5-second rule: to eat or not to eat. That is the question? – Part 1.

Image credit: Unsplash by Josephina Kolpachnikof

We all heard about the 5-second rule. Your mother always told you never to eat from the floor, but is it just an old wives’ tale? How long does it take germs to cross-contaminate food on the floor? cross-contamination can happen at different levels. Some are a higher risk than others. For example, when a piece of food falls on the floor versus food covered with a plastic barrier. So, if you drop a piece of say, bread, on the floor that is still in the plastic. The risk would be less than a piece of bread that is exposed to the floor.

Food science and future role in feeding the world —current and future of food safety

Food safety issue

Food safety has been a major issue these past few years as food manufacturing companies are recalling more and more products. The main recall comes from microbiological contamination, tandfonline.com mentions: “Listeria in breakfast sandwiches of Starbucks back in 2016, melamine-tainted milk powder scandal in China which harmed thousands of babies and led to many cases of death in 2008, the E.coli outbreak in bean sprouts in Germany which killed 29 people and caused approximately 3000 illness.” There were other recalls in 2018 such as the E. Coli recall of green leaf lettuce and other small recalls such as 38 cases of Salmonella in eggs.