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Hard to know where to put this post so will put it here as it has to do with food.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/02/01/double.dipping.ap/index.html

Beware the bowl: Double dipping spreads bacteria

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- Keep an eye on the salsa this Super Bowl Sunday: A researcher inspired by a famous "Seinfeld" episode has concluded that double dipping is just plain gross.
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Double dipping "is like putting your whole mouth right in the dip," a Clemson University researcher says.

"That's like putting your whole mouth right in the dip!" George Costanza was admonished on the show after he dipped a chip twice at a wake. That's not too far off, said Clemson University professor Paul L. Dawson.

Last year the food microbiologist's undergraduate students examined the effects of double dipping using volunteers, wheat crackers and several sample dips. They found that three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from an eater's mouth to the remaining dip sample.

"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."
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The professor said the students' research didn't get into the risk behind such a bacteria transfer, but they got the idea.

"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," Dawson said.
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