Does the five-second rule exist? I’m a Celeb stars eat dropped beans
Watch: I’m a Celebrity’s Jane Moore cites 'three-second rule’ as campmates rescue beans dropped on the floor
I'm A Celebrity campmates have reignited a discussion about the validity of the 'five-second rule' after eating beans that had been dropped on the jungle floor.
The incident branded "bean gate" by contestant Tulisa Contostavlos, saw the N-Dubz star accidentally drop the camp's food on the ground during Monday night's episode.
The singer, 36, spilt the beans after attempting to empty the cooking pots without a sieve, unbeknownst to the majority of the other campmates.
On spotting what had happened Loose Women panellist Jane Moore declared the "three second rule" should come into practice - despite the beans being on the ground for well past 10 seconds - as she helped pick up the food, saying: "It's just a bit of dirt, it's fine".
Coleen Rooney, 38, then helped to salvage beans, as they washed them in the lagoon and picked out the remaining twigs and grass, while Tulisa laughed: "This is really ghetto living guys!".
Following the incident, people expressed their shock that campmates had applied the rule, which assumes food is safe to eat if it is only dropped briefly on the floor.
"I’m watching 4 celebs pick rice and beans up off the jungle floor to rinse them in water and eat them. Some life this is," one user wrote on X (formally Twitter).
"Watching Tulisa pick beans off the muddy floor was not on my 2024 bingo card," another commented.
"Nothing screams I am in the jungle and I am hungry then a bunch of celebrities picking up beans off the floor," yet another wrote.
So, what's the truth about the five (or three, as it's sometimes referred to) second rule?
What is the five-second rule?
Many of us have grown up believing the magical five-second rule, founded on the basis that it is safe to eat those dropped titbits of food from the floor, as long as it wasn't on the ground for longer than three or five seconds. Dropped your ice lolly? It’s ok, five-second rule!
The general assumption seems to be that if you swipe the food up and dust it off quickly enough any germs won't have time to grow in sufficient numbers.
Is there any science behind the five-second rule?
Sadly, not according to Dr Georgios Efthimiou, lecturer in microbiology at the University of Hull. "There is no scientific basis for the five-second rule," he explains. "Microbes from the floor can attach on food almost instantly."
Dr Efthimiou says there's a difference between the type of floor you drop your food on with carpets harbouring more microbes compared to ceramic tiles, wood, steel or marble.
"Since bacteria tend to be attracted to moisture, wet food also has more risk for microbial attachment than dry food (for example meat vs peanuts)," he adds.
Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey previously found that bacteria can contaminate food that falls on the floor in less than a second.
Meanwhile a test on Channel 4’s How To Stay Well also suggested that there’s actually no time window in which it’s safe to eat food after it’s been dropped on the floor as the bacteria “transfers almost instantly”. It involved Dr Javid Abdelmoneim placing slices of carrot cake in the floor in both a kitchen and on an outside pavement. While some were left there for 30 seconds, others were left for five before being sent to a germ-testing lab.
Professor Laura Bowater, a microbiologist from the University of East Anglia, then analysed the cake and found that regardless of whether it had been picked up after 30 or five seconds, it had the same amount of bacteria stuck to it.
They concluded that wet foods will pick up more bacteria and, of course, found that the cake left on the pavement picked up more than that in the kitchen.
What are the risks of eating food dropped on the floor?
Some really quite nasty ailments ranging from food poisoning to gastroenteritis (diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain), gastritis by bacteria such as E. coli, Listeria, Shigella, Staphylococus aureus and Salmonella or mycotoxin-producing fungi.
"Also, if someone's immune system is compromised, (elderly, cancer patients, HIV patients, transplant recipients) they'll have a higher risk of developing food poisoning after eating contaminated food," adds Dr Efthimiou. "For such people, food poisoning might prove lethal."
Is it safe to eat dropped food if you wash it?
The I'm A Celebrity campmates might want to look away now as according to Dr Efthimiou it depends on how clean the floor was and we can't imagine the jungle floor was all that clean.
"If it was very dirty, washing with water will not remove all microbes," Dr Efthimiou adds.
While the five-second rule is a comforting narrative, it's actually safer to put hygiene first and throw any dropped food in the bin. Sorry, campmates!
Read more about I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here:
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Health benefits of positive affirmations as Oti Mabuse uses them on I’m a Celeb (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)
