Anne Bernhard, an assistant professor of biology, and her students at Connecticut College have put the rule stating that food can be picked up and eaten if it doesn't remain on the ground for more than 5 seconds to the test.
The research team dropped apple slices, a wet food, and Skittles, a dry food, on the cafeteria floor and measured the results. They concluded that 30 seconds was probably safe for moist food and up to a minute could be safe for dry food.
They said that previous confirmation of the 5-second rule was not real world as the floor in question was deliberately smeared with E.coli. "This is really testimony to the great housekeeping at our school," said one student.
