Myth or truth: the five-second rule
Kristina Williams-Lee
| 1 min read
You know the story.
It’s the start of another family movie night, and the aroma of Mom’s irresistible chocolate chip brownies permeate the entire house, diverting everyone’s attention to the beautiful wonders forming in the oven. Mom’s brownies have been known to cause grown men to slide into the kitchen like Tom Cruise in Risky Business, missing pants and all. Five minutes are left on the timer, and WHEW – time is dragging by.
Finally, the buzzer goes off – they’re done! Mom whisks them out of the oven, and the stampede begins.
One by one, the little brown squares of gooey, chocolate heaven disappear from sight. You approach the serving plate to claim your sweet prize. You raise your brownie up, open your mouth and close your eyes in sheer delight – not noticing your equally eager (and considerably larger) little brother barreling in your direction for his own treat. He collides into you, knocking the precious brownie out of your hand. And as you watch it flail about in mid-air, you wonder if your reaction time will be fast enough to clear the infamous 5-second rule – and its associated bacteria – once it hits the ground.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news (via Discovery.com), but check this out:
