Three-Second Rule is a Dangerous, Deadly Myth

Do you practise the three-second rule when you drop food on the floor? If so, you might die, scientists warn.

Okay so you might die in extreme circumstances, but death is certainly on the table (or the floor? now I’m confusing myself here).

And it doesn’t matter which variation of the rule you follow- the three-second rule, the five-second rule or the ten-second rule- where you decide that food is “safe” to eat if it has only touched the floor or ground briefly.

Well, the bad news is, that isn’t going to save you from potential death, whether it was three seconds or for a whole day on the floor. Germs will do what germs will do, because science.

 It turns out, the rule is just a myth, and a third of people are putting their health at the risk of a “silent killer” by eating dirty food.

The risk is associated with household bugs like Salmonella and E.Coli. They stick to foods the instant they come into contact with them. You need to throw out food that has been on the floor instantly, no matter how long it was there for.

This is bad news for the parents out there who are guilty of telling their kids about the three-second rule. Food that’s contaminated with these bugs can make you or your kids really sick, even with the runs, at best. Death is in the most extreme cases.

The findings come from cleaning technology company Kärcher, who revealed that 37 per cent of the people they polled would eat food that had been dropped on the kitchen floor, while 38 per cent felt ok with picking up food that had been dropped on the living room floor and eating it.

The problem with these deadly bugs is that we don’t know if we have them – we cannot see them or smell them, and they can multiply from a single bacterium to several millions of them in as little as seven hours.

The saying “the floor is clean enough to eat off of” probably doesn’t apply to your floor if you’re like any of the survey respondents.

Kärcher reckons 43 per cent of people who responded to their survey admitted to using just an air freshener to clean their house. Wait, what? I have no idea how that works either. Another 49 per cent used only a broom to clean. And guess what? Neither of these things are gonna kill bacteria!

Meanwhile 29 per cent of people said they would only clean if they smelled something unpleasant, with 59 per cent admitting they wait until they can see visible signs of dirt before they clean something.

Do you follow the three-second rule?