Most of us have dropped a tasty treat on the floor and the inevitable question runs through through your head: “Does the five second rule count?” …Does it matter what type of surface the food landed on?  …The surfaces tested were carpet, wood and laminated tile. …In less than five seconds there was a bacterial transfer significant enough to ‘infect’ someone and that risk increased the longer the food stayed in contact with the contaminated surface. …Carpet was shown to be the most ‘hygienic’… most likely due to the “salmonella mixture” sinking deep into fibres. …And of course, no amount of research will ever be able to answer the rhetorical question: If you eat something that you dropped on the floor and nobody is around to see you drop it – did it really fall on the floor?