When you major in Food Science you’re confronted with course work about every single foodborne illness and bad bacteria.
You memorize which disease gives people explosive diarrhea and which simply gives regular diarrhea. I’m not joking, there was a distinction.
The least enjoyable part was spending two lecture hours watching a documentary on mad cow disease. It was incredibly disturbing and made me stop eating hamburgers for a couple weeks before I gave into their juicy goodness.
All this curriculum on how food can get contaminated and make you sick, and I still find myself following the five second rule. At least in my own house.
Being in public is a totally different story.
It’s not that I think the bacteria are counting to five m-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i before they hitch a ride, I just cannot stand the thought of more food waste.
Is this a good enough reason? I don’t know…
But, I figured if I studied ice cream for my PhD, some laboratory has surely tried to confirm the five-second rule. And boy, I was not disappointed.