5 Foods It's Probably Okay To Eat Off Of The Floor

We've all been there: you're in the kitchen fixing yourself a snack or finally settling down to eat, and some (or all) of it falls onto the floor. What to do? Do we sigh, pick it up, and throw it out, cursing our incompetence? Do we eat it as long as it hasn't been on the floor for more than five seconds? Well, as National Geographic points out, the five-second rule is essentially bunk – once something makes contact with the ground, one second might as well be thirty – but do certain foods do better when dropped on the floor than others? The answer is yes: if a food is wet and sticky it'll collect more bacteria than something that isn't, and carpet tends to transmit fewer bacteria than hardwood or tile floors. Here are five foods that when dropped onto a (relatively) clean floor will probably not make you sick. But remember: someone can spend an entire lifetime eating food off of the floor and never get sick, and someone else might get sick the first time they do it.

Cookies
As long as it's not one of those moist and sticky cookies, you can just brush it off and eat it; every kid in history has.

Crackers
Same deal here: just blow the dust off and go for it.

Toast
As long as it lands butter side up, you should be fine.

Dry Pasta
Dry pasta is safe to use after it falls on the floor, especially because it'll soon be heading into a pot of boiling water.

Unsliced Fruit
The outer peels of grapes, apples, plums, and other fruits are intended to be a barrier from the elements, and that's exactly what they do. If you're concerned, a quick rinse can't hurt.