5-second rule...fact or fiction?!

That depends on what was dropped & where. If it was dropped on a surface I know is "fairly" clean, then yes. Otherwise, no. As for as the bbq chicken...I would have rinsed it off, put more sauce on it, then put it back on the grill.

I'm a Scoutmaster and our troop went to scout camp a couple weeks ago and a sausage fell from the griddle to the ground. In a fraction of a second it was coated in dirt. I rinsed it, put it back on the griddle a minute or two - then ate it! My scouts thought I was nuts! BTW - it was a little gritty!

A little dirt never hurt anybody.

I think its fine as long as you are ok with it. I worked in several resturants over the years where i have seen the same thing though. Thats not ok with me. Drop Chicken or a steak on the floor pick it up and throw it right back on the grill. EWWWWW

id say if its ur food and its at home and droped then its ur germs.. i have four kids i have to say food is ate off my floor daily.. LOL

A little dirt never hurt anyone!!!

My co-worker once confessed to me that she served her inlaws a pork chop that had dropped off of the stove and into the catbox next to it!  A newlywed and with no extras, she simply rinsed it off, finished cooking it and dinner was served, hahaha!    
It was years ago; she never let on and the inlaws survived, but....eeewwww!

whenever someone drops food here we say 5 second rule its clean.

absolutely ....a little grit is good for the system! (at my house, the rule is if you get it before the dog, it's still good!)

Yup... was raised with the following saying: we all eat a peck of dirt before we die anyway!

I guess any excuse will do huh?

I'm ok with that!  A funny story...my mother-in-law used to do catering and once made and decorated a cake for a friend's wedding.  She finished the cake and put icing on it late one night, like at 2am or something.  Got up the next morning to take the cake to the wedding and the dog had licked one whole side of the icing off the cake.  She was in a quandry at this point...there was not time to make another cake & she could not ruin this woman's wedding by telling her the dog licked the icing off or show up with no cake, so she just put more icing on the cake and took it over to the wedding.  She sat there the whole time cringing that people were eating this cake and loving it.  The bride never knew.

To be quite honest with you... Yes I would eat it and there again I would serve it too! However if a wiener rolled off the grill and into the ash... That would be different because you can't hide something like that, that in turn would not be edible. The funny thing is, you know that it hit the ground and then you try to hide it under all the good ones and then at that point you've forgotten which one it was which is okay cause you think that no one ate it!

i dint honestly but as my little sisters say God made dirt, dirt dont hurt. a little durt wont hurt ya.

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I use the 5 sec. rule all the time

Yes, we do.  The first time our daughter dropped some food and our darling 18month old was screaming for it, what did I do?  I wiped it off and gave it to her anyway.  Wow what a good mom!!

I just wanted to make an observation...I'm wondering if all of you saying you would eat it off the ground are the same people who use hand sanitizer on your hands to eliminate germs!    Just for the record...No way would I eat anything off the ground.  You may as well lick your shoe. EWWWW!

According to show mythbusters....there is no 5 sec, 3 sec, or 1 second rule for that matter. Ewwww!

I think it's okay depending where it lands. When my son had his 3rd birthday(he is 33 now!), I made a home-made from scratch chocolate birthday cake for him.  When our company came over, he was so excited he took the cake from the fridg himself and he dropped it on the kitchen floor. I was not going to let that cake go to waste so I smoothed over the frosting and served it to our guests!

Yes, I do, but God made dirt, and dirt don't hurt