Double Dipping: Not Just Bad For Your Social Life
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ― Between the Super Bowl ads and the game itself, partygoers this Sunday might want to keep an eye on one other thing as they gather around food platters and television sets: the dip.
A Clemson University study is adding weight to the tongue-lashing that "Seinfeld" character George Costanza got in one of the sit-com's famous episodes when he "double dipped" - another way of saying he dipped a chip in some dip, crunched into it and then re-dipped the remnants.
Professor Paul L. Dawson, a food microbiologist, wondered how bad double dipping might be and posed the question last year to his undergraduate students: Was there any transfer of microbes from mouth to chip and back to the dip?
The answer was just plain gross.
"I was very surprised by the results," Dawson said in a telephone interview Thursday. "I thought there would be very minimal transfer. I didn't think we would be able to detect it."
Dawson's students set up three separate dipping tests using volunteers who used wheat crackers and dipped them for three seconds into tablespoons of test dip.
In one test, they were asked to dip a cracker after taking no bites. In another test, they were asked to double dip three times into the samples; in another, they were asked to make six double dips in each dip sample, situations that might mimic partygoers at a buffet table.
The sample dips included sterile water with three different degrees of acidity; salsa; a cheese dip and chocolate syrup.
Dawson said that on average, the students found that the three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from an eater's mouth to the remaining dip sample.
"Our objective was, does it transfer bacteria? And unequivocally, it does," Dawson said.
The results of the research is scheduled to be published in the journal Food Safety within the next six months, the professor said.
In the study, the students looked for the "aerobic bacteria" in the dip samples, which Dawson said is bacteria that grows in the air, as compared to bacteria that might grow in a closed area such as a canned food item.
The professor said the students' research didn't get into the risk behind such a bacteria transfer, but they got the idea.
"We didn't test for whether they were transferring the flu virus or colds. But we know that's how most colds and flu are transferred," Dawson said.
And the bottom line at the food table?
"You can eat the dip, but you shouldn't eat it when someone else is double dipping," Dawson said, adding, "I like to say it's like kissing everybody at the party - if you're double dipping, you're putting some of your bacteria in that dip."
So, one hostess hint might be to serve small chips and avoid large crackers or chips that can be returned to that tasty onion dip or spicy salsa bowl.
"That sounds like a practical solution to me," Dawson said with a laugh, "just use the little scoops, not the big ones."
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ― Between the Super Bowl ads and the game itself, partygoers this Sunday might want to keep an eye on one other thing as they gather around food platters and television sets: the dip.
A Clemson University study is adding weight to the tongue-lashing that "Seinfeld" character George Costanza got in one of the sit-com's famous episodes when he "double dipped" - another way of saying he dipped a chip in some dip, crunched into it and then re-dipped the remnants.
Professor Paul L. Dawson, a food microbiologist, wondered how bad double dipping might be and posed the question last year to his undergraduate students: Was there any transfer of microbes from mouth to chip and back to the dip?
The answer was just plain gross.
"I was very surprised by the results," Dawson said in a telephone interview Thursday. "I thought there would be very minimal transfer. I didn't think we would be able to detect it."
Dawson's students set up three separate dipping tests using volunteers who used wheat crackers and dipped them for three seconds into tablespoons of test dip.
In one test, they were asked to dip a cracker after taking no bites. In another test, they were asked to double dip three times into the samples; in another, they were asked to make six double dips in each dip sample, situations that might mimic partygoers at a buffet table.
The sample dips included sterile water with three different degrees of acidity; salsa; a cheese dip and chocolate syrup.
Dawson said that on average, the students found that the three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from an eater's mouth to the remaining dip sample.
"Our objective was, does it transfer bacteria? And unequivocally, it does," Dawson said.
The results of the research is scheduled to be published in the journal Food Safety within the next six months, the professor said.
In the study, the students looked for the "aerobic bacteria" in the dip samples, which Dawson said is bacteria that grows in the air, as compared to bacteria that might grow in a closed area such as a canned food item.
The professor said the students' research didn't get into the risk behind such a bacteria transfer, but they got the idea.
"We didn't test for whether they were transferring the flu virus or colds. But we know that's how most colds and flu are transferred," Dawson said.
And the bottom line at the food table?
"You can eat the dip, but you shouldn't eat it when someone else is double dipping," Dawson said, adding, "I like to say it's like kissing everybody at the party - if you're double dipping, you're putting some of your bacteria in that dip."
So, one hostess hint might be to serve small chips and avoid large crackers or chips that can be returned to that tasty onion dip or spicy salsa bowl.
"That sounds like a practical solution to me," Dawson said with a laugh, "just use the little scoops, not the big ones."
