Paf! A big piece of your delicious pie just fell to the floor. According to some, if you pick it up in less than three seconds, you can eat it. But there is one thing to know first.
A slightly hectic aperitif, slightly distracted children, a somewhat rushed and faltering cook! Part of your pasta or your peas, a piece of your pie or your delicious cake crashes to the ground. These little everyday mistakes are common and it is not uncommon to drop all or part of your dish on the floor during a meal. From there, there are two possible choices: throw away this delicious food while grumbling or quickly pick it up and devour it without thinking too much about the consequences.
Who among us has never picked up food that fell on the ground and thought it was still fit for consumption? Many people also refer to the famous “3-second rule” to put gluttony before deprivation. This popular belief is that food that has fallen to the ground can be eaten without risk if it has spent less than three seconds on the ground.
Science has looked into the issue and has nuanced the adage a little… There are still some precautions to take. A study carried out in 2016 confirmed that bacteria could reach food from the moment it comes into contact with the ground. Make no mistake: the adhesion of bacteria is therefore immediate. On the other hand, it is proven that their quantity increases with the time of contact with the food. The longer it remains on the ground, the more likely bacteria will nest there.
So does the three-second rule reduce risk? No doubt, but the French virologist Océane Sorel and Nicole Arnold, food safety specialist, urge the greatest caution in the media. According to the latter, everyone’s tolerance threshold differs, but she herself would not eat a chip that had spent a few seconds on the ground. In fact, minimal contact with Salmonella is enough to spread it. ANSES itself warns against salmonellosis, an acute gastroenteritis caused by these bacteria.
If we absolutely want to avoid wasting, respecting the three seconds will be a very slight precaution which can be reinforced by a little attention. In a statement to Real Simple magazine, one of the researchers from the 2016 study points out that it depends on the location of the disaster. Consuming food that has fallen on the ground will undoubtedly be even riskier outside the controlled environment of one’s own home, such as in a restaurant or worse, in the street or in a train station.
Océane Sorel indicates for her part that the risk varies depending on the food and its humidity: if the food is pasty or humid, or if your kitchen floor has been exposed to droplets from chicken juice, the risk of picking up salmonella will be higher. She ends by emphasizing that blowing on fallen food will not rid it of the bacteria that has settled there!
When in doubt, prevention is better than cure and avoid myths: perhaps leaving that piece of food where it fell is better than a very practical but arbitrary rule.