What Happens If You Eat Food Off The Floor

The usual warnings apply.

What happens if you eat food off the floor.

Occasionally eating food that was briefly on the floor is not likely to make you sick. No it s never a good idea to eat food that has been dropped. The three most worrying forms of infectious bacteria that could lurk on our floors are e coli staphylococcus aureus s aureus and salmonella. It s all about bacteria when you drop a piece of food on the floor any bacteria living on the floor will adhere to it.

Bacteria are carried by various media which can include raw food moist surfaces where bacteria has been. First let s address the elephant in the room. The five second rule which states that as long as dropped food is picked up within five seconds of hitting the floor it s safe to eat. So if you eat the food you ve dropped you re also eating any.

Bacteria are carried by various media which can include raw food moist surfaces where bacteria has been. And foods with wet surfaces like an apple slice pick up bacteria even more easily than things like a cookie. Even food that s picked up quickly can be contaminated. Aaron e carroll indiana university s professor of pediatrics says he eats food that s been on the floor rejecting the advice of a recent study that suggests food dropped on the floor will pick.

And it s not just dropping food on the floor that can lead to bacterial contamination. E coli can cause diarrhoea and urinary tract. 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. You could become ill regardless of whether you ate food from the floor.

If you are unlucky enough to host salmonella bacteria on your floor dropped food could make you. 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 food. But it depends on what you drop and where.