Poll: Food that touched the floor, do you eat it ?

[krazykidd]

I just accidentally dropped a chip on the floor in my house . While not my last chip , i stood there for a second trying to decide if i should pick it up and eat it . My mother always told me to never , ever , eat any food that touched the floor. Others have told be of their 5 to 30 second rule ( basically if it was on de floor for less than 5 to 30 seconds , depending on who you ask , it's safe to eat ). Growing up i never( knowingly ) ate anything that fell on the floor, appart from when i was a toddler of course . This time was no different , i picked up the chip and threw it out .

So my question is: when you drop food on the floor, do you pick it up and eat it?

And as a bonus question : if you do eat food that dropped on the floor , how long before you deem it's no longer edible?

Also out of curiosity , what was the last thing you ate off the floor?

 

[ShinyCharizard]

I tend not to. Mainly because my dog is a hairy bastard and so if I drop any food on the floor if picks up a dog hair or two.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Depends.

What kind of food is it?

What kind of floor is it?

How clean or dirty is the floor?

How long was the food on the floor?

Did something touch it when it hit the floor?

Am I hungry?

Was it my food to begin with?

Was it dropped for a good reason or was it just accidentally dropped?

Was it food I was really looking forward to eating?

Am I feeling spontaneous?

You get the idea.

 

[Silvanus]

Depends entirely on the floor in question, and whether I've seen any spiders in the vicinity recently.


If a spider might previously have touched that section of floor, then no way, no how.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Depends on the food and the floor. If the food is wet and things would probably stick to it, then no. If the food is dry, and the floor is clean, then sure, why not?

 

[Juste Goose]

Once food touches the ground, it becomes the dog's property.

Unless it's poison. Than I have to watch her sad eyes as I throw it in the garbage.

"But... but... we had a deal..."

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Not in this life!
Maybe you can't see the germs.
But they can see YOU.

 

[Queen Michael]

I don't like to eat food that touched the floor, but I'll make an exception if it's my own floor. Otherwise I'll let it be. I'm not so fond of eating that I have to eat grubby grub.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

That depends entirely on the food and the surface it's landed on.


Something like a crisp on a hard, dry floor? Fine, I'll pick up that sucker and chow down.

A lolly pop I just dropped on a carpet? Yeah, no, I ain't eating anything fuzzy.

 

[Weaver]

If it's not covered in stuff when I pick it up, it's good to eat.
If it is, I throw it out.

 

[game-lover]

Yep.

I'm not sure how long until food would be inedible after it fell. Generally, I pick it up almost immediately.

Um... it was probably a potato wedge. Sometimes we drop things when we're cooking in the deli where I work. I tend to eat those since otherwise we'd just throw it away.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Depends on the food and where I dropped it.

Drop an M&M on my kitchen floor just after sweeping, that sucker is NOT getting away that easily.

Drop half a salami sandwich on my living room carpet when it's due for a vacuum....heh, no.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Like so many others here I have to say depends on the food & what it fell on.
Not the best housekeeper in the world so it often does get tossed.
Umm, lets see...there was a bit of (cooked) ground beef that fell to the floor the other day, relatively clean kitchen floor. Rinsed it off thoroughly & ate it. Was on the floor about 1 second.

 

[TehCookie]

If there's dirt and hair on it I throw it away, invisible dirt is fine. I usually have until my cats get to it, but thankfully they're not as greedy as dogs (unless it's tuna or spilt milk).

The last thing I ate was a piece of spinach that fell out of my salad. It sat there til I was finished mixing the rest of my salad before I added it back. I like to think my disregard for germs is why I never get sick, I'm immune to them already.

 

[Strazdas]

it depends on the results. If its something like a chip of course ill eat it. the floor is more healthy anyway. if its something like butter i wont be licking though. it really depends on whether something sticks on it or not.
Your mother was wrong though. Or misguided. while its true that food picks up bacteria from the floor, it does so from everywhere else too. and the most bacteria ridden palces in your home is actually keyboard, controller, tv remote and (surprise) kitchen sponge. so if your eating and typing - you already eat more bacteria than if you are from the floor.
The 3 seconds rule (not sure where you got 5-30 seconds) is a myth, and has been busted. bacteria picks up as soon as you drop it and time spent does not increase its amount in any significant margin (watch appropriate mythbusters episode).
I however dont eat if the food was there for a day or so, becuase then its obviuosly getting bad.

the last thing i are from the floor, tough. oh, no, wait, i dropped a piece of meat this morning accudentaly, i ate that.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

I voted for Yes. But only because it depends on the food & the floor, so i couldn't vote for either
Fluid stuff like yoghurt is a diffren cup of tea than say a tortilla chip.

But generally im not really afraid of some germs, quite the contrary. We've a saying here "Kids have to eat a pound of dirt a year". Meaning that trying to life too hygienic is more harmful than testing&streghtening your immune system now and then.

Captcha: Steak and Eggs.
Reall Captcha? You'd think i'd let steak go to waste? Are you crazy?!

 

[OneCatch]

I just accidentally dropped a chip on the floor in my house . While not my last chip , i stood there for a second trying to decide if i should pick it up and eat it . My mother always told me to never , ever , eat any food that touched the floor. Others have told be of their 5 to 30 second rule ( basically if it was on de floor for less than 5 to 30 seconds , depending on who you ask , it's safe to eat ). Growing up i never( knowingly ) ate anything that fell on the floor, appart from when i was a toddler of course . This time was no different , i picked up the chip and threw it out .

So my question is: when you drop food on the floor, do you pick it up and eat it?

And as a bonus question : if you do eat food that dropped on the floor , how long before you deem it's no longer edible?

Also out of curiosity , what was the last thing you ate off the floor?

If the floor in question is a seething quagmire of mud, no. If it's got hair or dust on it, no
If it's my (relatively) clean living room floor, probably.

I'd probably not eat something after a few hours, but that would be more to do with the food itself becoming unappetising than the fact it was on the floor.

Generally though, 5 second rules are crap. If there's germs on the floor they'll be there as soon as it makes contact with the floor. But most germs on a cleanish floor won't actually do you any harm - you'll be inhaling similar ones and subsequently swallowing them into your stomach anyway because of the actions of cilia in the trachea.
Your mother certainly wasn't wrong (better safe than sorry), but perhaps slightly excessive in her concern about germy floors. Unless your floor is actually unsanitary - which would frankly be more of a concern in itself - it probably won't do you any harm to pick something up again and eat it.

As for me? A square of chocolate that I dropped, a few days ago.

 

[Hagi]

Of course.

Constant exposure to medium amounts of germs is healthy.

Think that sandwich you're eating now is somewhat healthy? Just drop it on the floor and it's now twice as healthy!
Feel guilty about chowing down one more pack of potato chips? Just drop a few on the floor before chowing and it's all just training your immune system!

It's never getting any decent exposure to germs that'll fuck up your immune system.