One of the most popular and long-lived old wives' tales is known as the "5-second rule". The "rule" stipulates that food that has fallen on the floor is still safe to eat if you pick it up within five seconds of it hitting the ground. It has been around for many, many years, propagating itself on school playgrounds across the country and possibly even the world. Variations exist, shortening the rule to 3 seconds or expanding it to 10, but the basic theory remains. Unfortunately, it isn't true, as the Sacramento Bee's Lisa Heyamoto found out.

While some people, from 3 to 93, will continue to believe in the truth of this tale, the reality is that most surfaces are covered with germs and bacteria and floors are no exception. Drier foods, like cookies or a bagel, are less likely to pick up unsavory particles than wetter foods, like meat and cheese. Of course, we are all coming into contact with bacteria every day, whether we're cleaning our counter with a kitchen sponge (bacteria breeding ground) or giving our pets a pat. There is very little that can be done to avoid all contact. Ms. Heyamoto reminds us not to believe that we're "safe" when we follow the rule, but that your comfort level with what your food comes into contact with is subjective. The kitchen floor? Sure. The sidewalk outside your office? Perhaps not.

You can't go wrong following the other food rule: "When in doubt, throw it out!"

For years, chefs, food writers and even food scientists have said that cutting boards made of wood will absorb bacteria, and plastic ones will allow bacteria to flourish on the surface, lurking in each tiny cut. Each material has been declared worse in turns. Do plastic cutting boards really harbor more bacteria than wooden ones? Are wooden ones worse?

It looks like the food scientists at Cook's Illustrated have debunked this food myth, because according to their tests, the answer is "no". They collected the used cutting boards of several of their staff members, but found little bacteria on them. The boards, two wooden and two plastic, were then taken to a lab where they were inoculated with one drop of solution containing millions of bacteria. The bacteria were allowed to sit on the boards for 40 minutes, but after washing the boards with hot, soapy water, fewer than 100 bacteria from the original sample remained on each type of board.

While bacteria remained on each board, the amount was small and nearly equal for both materials. This shows that it doesn't matter what the board is made out of, but how you care for it. After each use, particularly if raw meat has touched the board, cleanse it with warm, soapy water. The FDA recommends sanitizing your boards in a solution of 1 tablespoon bleach to 1 gallon water.