How to Stay Well: Is it safe to eat food off the floor? Doctors reveal the TRUTH

Dr Javid Abdelmoneim, GP Helen Lawal and GP Phil Kieran, present the show, and every week each one of the medical professionals focuses on a different health issue. 

This week, Dr Javid Abdelmoneim investigated whether eating food that we drop on the floor is actually good for us. 

Dr Abdelmoneim visited his friend Anna and her sons to carry out an experiment to find out the answer. 

Armed with some moist shop-bought cake, he dropped pieces of it on Anna’s kitchen floor and then on the pavement outside her house to find out whether where you drop food can effect the amount of bacteria that’s picked up. 

First time round, he left the slices of cake on the floor and pavement for five seconds, then repeated the process, leaving them there for 30 seconds, to see if the amount of time you leave it on the ground effects how contaminated it gets. 

Each piece of cake was then placed on a plate ready for close inspection. 

Professor Laura Bowater, from the University of East Anglia, was on hand to help. 

First of all, Professor Bowater said studies have already been carried out to show moist foods are more liable to collecting more bacteria than something that’s dry. 

They then looked at the pictures showing bacteria on the cake slices which had been left for five seconds and 30 seconds on the ground. 

Both appeared to have the same amount of bacteria. 

Professor Bowater said: “This is because bacteria transfers almost instantly.” 

But where the cake was dropped had a big impact. 

The cake dropped on the pavement had picked up significantly more bacteria than the one dropped on Anna’s kitchen floor. 

Referring to the bacteria picked up by the cake on the kitchen floor, Professor Bowater said: “None of the bacteria it would pick up would make a healthy adult or child sick. 

“I’m not worried about the carpet or floor. 

“But having looked at these [pictures] I’d probably be worried about eating off the pavement.” 

Exposure to as many friendly bacteria helps people’s immune systems work properly. 

No exposure means it reacts to things it shouldn’t, such as pollen and dust, which causes allergies. 

Dr Abdelmoneim said: “Eating food off the floor can help expose us to friendly bacteria, but also unfriendly types. 

“If in doubt, rely on a bit of common sense.” 

A previous episode of How to Stay Well revealed how far from a sneeze you can be to catch a disease.