feel free to eat things off the floor.

Five-second rule for dropped food? Try 30

Two college students studied the 5 second rule for their microbiology class.

"First they dropped Skittles candy and apple slices on the school's dining hall floor for different lengths of time.

Then they swabbed the food for samples and checked for any bacteria.

Their conclusions may be a relief to those who rescue fallen food: it took more than 30 seconds for bacteria to cultivate on the apple slices, which represented wet food.

As for the Skittles, which stood in for dry food, it took longer than a minute."