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18th Sep 2016

Take A Break readers discussing picking food off the floor and eating it is sensational

5 second rule for us

Nooruddean Choudry

We’ll be honest with you, Take A Break isn’t one of our subscribed reads.

It’s the kind of thing your nan reads. With its sensational stories and plethora of puzzles, it sits comfortably alongside her knitting and emergency Werther’s. She’ll occasionally ask you what four down is – seven letters, another word for ‘dull’.

But thanks to Jordan Joshua Lewis off of Twitter, we might start paying more attention. He shared some marvellous snippets sent in from readers about a raging debate in the nan mag: Would you eat food you’d dropped on the floor?

The question may seem particularly banal, but the reader responses were nothing short of amazing. This was clearly not a query to be taken lightly and they were sure to show their working in coming to their considering verdicts.

Shannon has no qualms:

“I have picked up food that’s fallen on the floor in the house before. Although one time I was out with friends and I didn’t have any money for food. I found a Starburst sweet still in its wrapper on the ground – and I ate it because I was starving. It was still in the wrapper, though, so I’m sure it was fine.”

Lucy’s ‘nothing bad happened’ example is hard to argue with:

“I don’t think it’s a big deal. My daughter and I have never become sick from doing this. Once I found a big block of Dairy Milk on the pavement outside my house. It was open and had one row missing, but I picked it up and ate it. Nothing bad happened and I will continue to do this.”

As for Stephanie, she argues it’s good for your health:

“I think it’s fine if it happens inside the house, but I don’t allow it outside as you never know where a dog has been. Still, if my one-year-old drops his only biscuit outside and then picks it up, I pretend not to notice. A little bit of bacteria does the system some good.”

Brilliant. We’re off to nanas to nick her copy.

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