Thu, Jan 31st, 2008 | 11:42am |
Food
Timmy: "Did, did you just double dip that chip? That's like putting your whole mouth right in the dip!"
George: "You dip the way you want to dip, I'll dip the way I want to dip," *aims another used chip at the bowl*
Apparently that scene was enough to get Clemson University to do a study of
germ transfer from mouth-to-dip, and it turns out that Timmy was right.
Instead the results, to be published later this year in the Journal of Food Safety, found that it is a little bit like putting your whole mouth on the dip. On average, three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from the eater's mouth to the remaining dip.
"Each cracker picked up between one and two grams of dip. That means that sporadic double dipping in a cup of dip would transfer at least 50 to 100 bacteria from one mouth to another with every bite," McGee wrote.
There's some Superbowl food for thought :)
Posted by: dave on Jan 31st, 2008 | 2:31pm