Researchers confirm ‘germs are not aware’ when you drop your food

Ice cream on the floor. Photo/COURTESY Proponents of the urban myth “germs are not aware” will be happy to know that research has proved that picking up your food few seconds after dropping makes it less likely to have picked up germs than if left for a longer period of time.
According to a study done by Aston University’s School of Life and Health Sciences and published on their website, the surface upon which your food falls also plays a major role in the amount of germs picked up from the surface.

The study, which was led by Anthony Hilton, Professor of Microbiology at Aston University, monitored the transfer of the common bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus from a variety of indoor floor types (carpet, laminate and tiled surfaces) to toast, pasta, biscuit and a sticky sweet when contact was made from 3 to 30 seconds.

The study found that time is a factor in the transfer of germs from a floor surface to food and that the type of flooring the piece of food lands on also plays a major part in the amount of germs transferred.
Carpeting poses the least risk of transfer of germs from your floor to your food while laminate and tiled floor pose the highest risk of transferring germs especially to moist food.
“We have found evidence that transfer from indoor flooring surfaces is incredibly poor with carpet actually posing the lowest risk of bacterial transfer onto dropped food,” said professor Hilton.
Professor Hilton added: “Our study showed that a surprisingly large majority of people are happy to consume dropped food, with women the most likely to do so. But they are also more likely to follow the ‘germs are not aware’ rule, which our research has shown to be much more than an old wives’ tale.”