As anyone who’s dropped a slice of pizza on the floor, stared at it in bemusement, figured ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’, proceeded to pick it up and scoffed it down will no doubt attest, that do-I-eat-it? conundrum is a tricky issue.
How long is too long? Will it, in actual fact, taste better? What, indeed, is the worst that could happen?
Well, a new study conducted by clever types at the Manchester Metropolitan University has found that the answers to the aforementioned posers are: perhaps less than three seconds, probably not and fancy a bout of E coli?
The boffins found that the extent of damage caused to food is actually dependant on what foodstuffs you drop. So, while pasta and dried fruit picked up bacteria quickly, biscuits and processed foods take longer to suck up any dreaded lergies.
However, before you think twice about that American Hot on the floor, consider this: the survey was paid for by Vileda, the mop people. They want you to keep your floor clean. Does that skew the findings? Perhaps not.
Why not live by the dual adages that you should keep your floor clean (ok, less an adage, more like common sense) and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Which is all well and good, as long as it doesn’t kill you, we guess.
We’re confused now. Pass the pizza, for God’s sake.
[via News.com.au]
(Image: Rex Features)
