The Five Second Rule, At what Point is it useless?

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Five-second rule
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the basketball rule, see Five-second rule (basketball).

Strawberries dropped on the ground. The five-second rule suggests that if they are picked up within five seconds, it is safe to eat them.
The five-second rule, sometimes also the three-second rule, is a western cultural food hygiene concept, that states that there is a defined window where it is permissible to pick up food (or sometimes cutlery) after it has been dropped and thus exposed to contamination. Some may believe this assertion, whereas most people employ the rule as an amusing social fiction that allows them to eat a dropped piece of food, despite the potential reservations of their peers. How many and what type of bacteria would stick to a piece of dropped food depends on many factors, the food or the floor being wet or dry among them. There is also a social dimension as dropped food in a restaurant or when guests are around is simply unacceptable, but in a family or private situation it may be still tolerated.

There appears to be no scientific consensus on the general applicability of the rule, and its origin is unclear.

We all seem to use it, we drop something we were enjoying and dash to bend over pick it up and eat so long as it's within that 5 seconds. When does it become pointless to bend over, scrabble on the floor and then eat your own spillage?
I only ask because I was eating some Bombay mix and something fell, I dashed down to ground level to find a dried lentil, I was within the time limit but I wonder was the effort of bending over to pick up this tiny legume going to repay me by replacing the calories spent in this action?

O.K. I stopped it becoming part of the contents of my vacuum's dust bag and therefore perhaps the electricity saved helped a little towards the so called global warming scenario however, both the exercise in bending and also the calories wasted on developing this thread must surely far outweigh the initial effort.

Maybe we should get into the habit of, what falls on the floor stays on the floor?

[RainbowSix]

It's pointless at the exact moment that the food touches the floor.

Bacteria does not look at it and go "Oh gee, some food to climb on, lets just wait a few more seconds before we do"..... it just gets on with it.

Someone may have just walked in dog poop or other nasty stuff (or just come out of public toilets) and walked on that floor, 5 seconds is not going to make it any less of a yeuch! moment.

p.s. I have 2 dogs, what falls on the floor is not there long.

[ferret man]

I was going to say this is called building the immune system, but if the people that run the fast food establishments catch on to that they may try to use it as a defence in court.

[DaveinGermany]

I suppose the level of inebriation has a bearing on the time limits.

[Barrie Yates]

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

I suppose the level of inebriation has a bearing on the time limits.

The voice of experience?

[DaveinGermany]

Most definitely Barrie, most definitely!