A microbiologist has shared his disturbing findings after testing cinema popcorn for any lurking grime.
Tim Call often has bad news for germaphobes, having previously hit the headlines for sharing shocking details about everything from hand dryers to kitchen sinks.
The 32-year-old frequently tests commonly used products and spaces for bacteria, horrifying users by revealing just how dirty surfaces can be.
In his latest experiment, the scientist, who has over 317,000 followers on TikTok, tackles movie theatre popcorn.
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Tim made the strange discovery by going to the cinema, and getting some fresh popcorn from the stand, as well as going into a theatre and collecting a handful off of the floor.
He starts first by testing the fresh popcorn, adding a liquid to the bag, mixing it, and popping some pipets of the substance onto a petri dish.
The microbiologist, from Utah, US, then does the same with the floor popcorn.
Finally, he grabs both dishes and pops them into the incubator.
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In a timelapse video, he then shows the difference between the two – and it’s safe to say the five-second rule is out when it comes to dining at the cinema.
The fresh popcorn dish looks practically completely clean, while the other has grown thousands of bacterial colonies, as well as large patches of fungus.
The post was captioned: “In this fun experiment, I went to a movie theatre and tested the popcorn they sold.”
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Adam said: “Five second rule is debunking right there.”
Lee commented: “The final growth is kind of beautiful.”
Mallorie added: “That’s it for the three second rule.”
Niki joked: “So what you’re saying is; I shouldn’t eat popcorn off the floor anymore?”
“I will be sure to stop eating floor popcorn, thank you!” said someone else.
“Carpet popcorn,” added another user.
“Omg that is so much worse than I thought it would be!” said Kennedy.
Tim often posts to TikTok to educate others on just how dirty everyday items can be.
“I make this content because I’ve always been curious about what was growing around me and I wanted to visually see it,” Tim told What’s The Jam.
“It’s starting to visually answer many questions that people have had.
“The cleanest thing that I tested that surprised me was gas pumps at gas stations.
“I thought they would be filled with bacteria due to the amount of usage but was surprised to see there was very little growth, only five colonies grew.”
