Food Falls On Floor

Or between a reasonably clean living room carpet probably.

Food falls on floor.

And it s probably not a new one either. Turns out fallen food does pick up germs immediately upon making contact with the floor and the amount of bacteria transferred can be enough to make you sick according to paul dawson phd a. Two experts tell webmd you should never eat food that s fallen on the floor. From a food safety standpoint if you have millions or more cells on a surface 0 1 is still enough to make you sick.

The popular notion of the five second rule is that food dropped on the floor if picked up quickly is safe to eat because bacteria need time to transfer professor schaffner told. A new study says it s safe to eat food that s been on the floor for less than five seconds. But it depends on what you drop and where. But another study champions the zero second rule of bacterial contact.

One customer has a zero tolerance policy for anything that is dropped or falls off the line. If you ve been using the five second rule you know the age old principle that says food that s been dropped on the floor is still safe to eat if picked up. As soon as any food touches the floor of course it will pick up dirt and therefore microbes inside that dirt says jack gilbert a microbial ecologist at the university of chicago in. There s a big difference between picking up a cracker from a just cleaned dry kitchen floor probably safe versus the floor near the cat litter box not.

Wondering if food is still ok to eat after it s been dropped on the floor or anywhere else is a pretty common experience. Whether it is a raw material meat included or a finished good completely sealed in packaging. As a co manufacturer in a non rte facility i deal with several policies concerning food on the floor.