The New York Times reported recently on a soon-to-be-published, Seinfeld-inspired study in the Journal of Food Safety on the phenomenon of "double dipping." Yeah, double dipping as in, dipping once, taking a bite, and then dipping again. George Constanza did it. And admit it, you've done it too!
Well, think twice before you do it again. Why? Because the study showed that, indeed, double dipping spreads bacteria mouth to mouth. “The way I would put it is, before you have some dip at a party, look around and ask yourself, would I be willing to kiss everyone here? Because you don’t know who might be double dipping, and those who do are sharing their saliva with you,” told the lead researcher of the study, a microbiologist, to the Times.
At that rate, I'd rather skip the party AND the dip, and watch Seinfeld re-runs at home alone...with a nice cold glass of milk and Bosco.
Links:
New York Times coverage
Journal of Food Safety articles available via interlibrary loan
video of infamous Seinfeld "double dip" episode via Gothamist