Friday, July 20, 2012

Real Dirt

Some spoilsport scientist is debunking my favorite rule of low cuisine: the "5-second rule".

This rule states that food dropped to the ground is still safe to eat if you can pick it up within 5 seconds.
“A dropped item is immediately contaminated and can’t really be sanitized,” says Jorge Parada, MD, MPH, FACP, FIDSA, medical director of the infection prevention and control program at Loyola University Health System. “When it comes to folklore, the ‘five-second rule’ should be replaced with ‘when in doubt, throw it out’.”
What I like about this guy is that his new rule, 'when in doubt, throw it out,' rhymes.

But here's one point I wish to insert -
every carrot was once in the dirt.

But about that dirt we don't care at all,
even though it's a place where bacteria crawl.

3 comments:

Charlie McDanger said...

A libertarian at the other end of the spectrum: http://karendecoster.com/kids-need-germs-and-dirt-and-i-eat-bugs.html

Charlie McDanger said...

...from the scientist, that is.

John Enright said...

Good article from Karen De Coster. Nice counter balance to this germaphobic scientist!

I go back and forth on this. If something nasty is going around, I get a little paranoid about who coughs on me. And I try to keep everything clean when preparing food for others. But otherwise I try to coexist with our microscopic co-denizens of the planet.