There’s No Such Thing As The 5-Second Rule

You’ve heard it your whole life — if you drop food, it’s still clean and edible as long as you pick it up within 5 seconds.

ACK! Nope, not true. Not even remotely, as we found out at the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety, which is part of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences — Ag Dawgs, they call ’em.

People have no idea the lengths the ag industry goes to doing the best possible job of keeping food safe — and that happens across the supply chain. Despite what you’d think from the headlines, most foodborne illnesses are our own fault. And that all starts here in the lab.