Doctor reveals how the 3-second food rule affects your health and what really matters

A doctor has weighed in on whether food is actually safe to eat after dropping it on the floor for three seconds.

Some of us call it the 10-second rule - it can't just be me, right? - others five and some the three-second rule, but when you drop food on the floor is it really safe to pick up and pop in your mouth?

The experiment

Well, during an appearance on British daytime TV show This Morning, Dr Zoe Williams explained Manchester Metropolitan University conducted a study to find out.

The experiment saw different food items dropped on the floor for three, five and ten seconds and then picked back up and checked for contamination with any harmful bacteria that was 'purposefully placed on the floor'.

The results? Prepare to rethink your counting.

Do you use the three, five or 10-second rule? (Getty Stock Images/ Indeed)

Whether food is still safe to eat

Dr Williams revealed: "There was a slight difference depending on the amount of time, so there is a thread of truth that the quicker you pick it up, the less contaminated it might be. But what they actually found was that it depends more on the type of food."

Basically, if the food is 'high in sugar or salt' then bacteria find it harder to contaminate, for example, a slice of ham. And the amount of bacteria which ended up on the food also changed depending on whether the food was dry or wet.

'The safest food to drop on the floor', pick up in between three to 10 seconds and then consume? The good old biscuit of course - both dry and sugary.

But what are Dr Williams' own recommendations off the back of the study?

She said: "I think the sensible thing to say, as a doctor, I have to say I cannot say it is safe to pick up food off the floor but it largely depends on the floor, doesn't it?"

So, if you haven't hoovered or mopped in a while, it's probably best to just toss it in the trash.

Dr Williams wouldn't recommend eating food picked up off the floor (Getty Stock Images/ Joebelanger)

It's not taken long for people to share their thoughts.

One Instagram user said: "I have labradors, food never hits the floor."

Another added: "My god mother used to say eat a peck of dirt before you die. A peck is a unit of volume that is equal to 8 quarts, 2 gallons, or 16 pints. She lived to be 103."

While a third wrote: "My parents always encouraged us to because it would build up our immune systems."

And a fourth resolved: "I think it depends what it is… if you have more then bin it... But if its the last one then its mine… lol."