Image from Ratterrell, Flickr CC
For Superbowl Sunday, go ahead and make some dip using Washington
Highlands, Wauwatosa Village, or Austin Mansion seasoning from the Kavanaugh Hill Spice Shop. But you might want to think about new ways to deliver it. Individually is a good idea. Because it turns out George Costanza was wrong. Double dipping chips is not only gross, but it really does spread germs.
Nine
student guinea pigs in Clemson University food scientist Paul Dawson's class double dipped wheat crackers in salsa, cheese dip, chocolate syrup, or
water. They found that 3-6 double dips transferred 10,000 anaerobic
bacteria from the eater's mouth to the dip, according to the New York
Times.
Thick dip was better because it stuck to whatever they
dipped instead of falling back into the bowl. Runny acidic dips, like
salsa, suffered the effects of drippage but eventually killed off some of the bacteria.
This argues for guacamole, I'm thinking, and hot fudge straight from the refrigerator as opposed to chocolate syrup for your Triscuit dipping pleasure.
Some people have the best jobs. This not-very-significant research really was inspired by Seinfeld. You can see some of Dawson's other "niche-based" work in the "Five-Second Rule Surface Contamination PowerPoint."
For those who don't know, the five second rule gives you that much time
to pick up something you've dropped and declare it germ-free.
On second thought, I might not want the man's job. It includes "recovery and use of underutilized poultry products including MDBM and spent fowl meat." MDBM stands for "mechanically deboned broiler meat," which isn't as nasty as I first thought. But I don't know about that "spent fowl meat."
