high temperature food = more than 5 second rule?

Question

I worked in a restaurant a long time ago and the chef said that if the food is hot it takes actually more than 5 sec. to get infected because the high temperature kill any bacteria is that true ?

i saw the mithbusters but they didn`t try hot cooked food,

Answer 1

all right... so here's the deal.

according to the local health department (i'm quite sure this is a standard), any food that hits the floor becomes trash. there is no 5 second rule.

additionally, bacteria isn't the only thing on the ground. perhaps there is dirt, and fire doesn't kill dirt. dirt may be sterile, but it's still gross.

importantly, let's imagine that there is a chemical on the ground, like a cleanser. that won't cook off either. and that is poison.

cooking food to high enough temperatures will indeed kill bacteria, but here is another myth debunked.

suppose you leave some food out at room temperature for 12 hours, then you cook it up to boiling. you kill all the bacteria, right? right, you will kill all the bacteria. so the food is safe to eat, right? wrong. bacteria produce biproducts which are poisonous, deadly even, and these chemicals are in fact dead already and heat does not necessarily destroy them.

so heat is not a cure all for food, and the 5 second rule is crap.

Answer 2

Mythbusters did a segment on this. The food is equally infected if its on the floor for a second or a minute. The 5 second rule is BUSTED.

Answer 3

Some bacterias die due to heat but the counts is just rubbish.

Answer 4

um ew no! once anything hits the ground its infected. dont listen to that 5 second rule junk!

Answer 5

no but you can count really slow and then throw it back on the grill for a couple sec.

Answer 6

ew. please tell me that restaurant didnt actually integrate that idea into their business policies...