The Five-Second Rule Is Really True . . . Maybe. Kind Of.

Finally, science has started asking the important questions -- like, if I drop the only piece of cold pizza left in the fridge on the floor after a long night of drinking (we swear this hasn't happened to us), is it okay to eat it if I follow the five-second...

By Heather Hoch

March 14, 2014

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Finally, science has started asking the important questions -- like, if I drop the only piece of cold pizza left in the fridge on the floor after a long night of drinking (we swear this hasn't happened to us), is it okay to eat it if I follow the five-second rule? Well, according to Huffington Post UK, science says there's actually some credence in the made-up rule, which has also been condemned as a bunch of baloney by another HuffPo article.

Anthony Hilton, a microbiology professor at Aston University in England, recorded bacterial transfers between different types of foods and different types of flooring over varying periods of time and found that there actually is a correlation between the length of time food is left on the floor and the amount of bacteria transferred to the food.

Another surprising finding in Hilton's study was that carpeting actually transmits the least amount of bacteria to food, in comparison to wood or laminate flooring. So if you don't mind plucking carpet fibers off of your cold pizza, you're good to go as long as you act quickly.

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