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When I dip you dip we dip


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Hah, that's funny.

I have a huge mouth and thus have never required a double dip. Just cram the whole chip in, even one of those "restaurant style" biggies, though sometimes that requires a forceful crumbling.

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Whatever, I got my meningitis vaccine, and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. ;-)

Anyway, double dipping is nothing. You can't be afraid of germs if you go to beer gatherings... shared glasses all over the place...

"I know it's the bugs, that's what cheese is. Gone off milk with bugs and mould - that's why it tastes so good. Cows and bugs together have a good deal going down."

- Gareth Blackstock (Lenny Henry), Chef!

eG Ethics Signatory

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Whether or not it is safe, double-dipping shows tremendous disregard for your companions' sensibilities. Knowing that some feel strongly against it, double-dippers are about as inconsiderate as it gets.

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Whether or not it is safe, double-dipping shows tremendous disregard for your companions' sensibilities.  Knowing that some feel strongly against it, double-dippers are about as inconsiderate as it gets.

Well of course! I know that the people I might double-dip with don't care (they're usually the beer people, nowadays...). If I was at an event, especially one where I didn't know many people, I would just spoon some of the dip on a plate or something - for my convenience, but also just in case (and so that I'm not standing around hogging the dip for myself).

It's interesting that they point out that they never tested the germs to see what they actually were... considering there are plenty of normal, not-going-to-kill-you bacteria in people's mouths, it was probably overwhelmingly those bacterium... then again, that doesn't mean it's them exclusively. Then again, most bacteria need to be in great numbers to actually infect you, unless they're crazy e.Coli bacterium.

And I'm pretty sure I saw another study about the 5-second rule proving that it was like.. 30 seconds, and that one was done on a cafeteria floor. And more important than that, who the hell is funding this stuff?

Edited by feedmec00kies (log)

"I know it's the bugs, that's what cheese is. Gone off milk with bugs and mould - that's why it tastes so good. Cows and bugs together have a good deal going down."

- Gareth Blackstock (Lenny Henry), Chef!

eG Ethics Signatory

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for those folks who are appalled by double dipping ..I say that is the least of your worries! ..do you honestly believe that the salsa on the tables that is not eaten is thrown away?????

or tossed back in the bucket for reuse?

me I am not foolish or blind ...I know most spots I visit where the food is about as good as it gets...put it right back into the bucket!

if you want to eat a communal dip and not worry about what germs are on there just drink more beer and forget about it

Edited by hummingbirdkiss (log)
why am I always at the bottom and why is everything so high? 

why must there be so little me and so much sky?

Piglet 

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If you double-dip, you are getting in everyone else's space. You're sharing your saliva with them and you may be blocking access to the dip as well. It's like people who stand over a buffet table eating, or the people who run their hands over a tray of appetizers and touch a couple before they settle on one. The world is their airline meal on a tray. I don't care if it's not a health risk; it's piggy. Take what you want to eat and let everyone else have their turn.

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From the article:

The team of nine students instructed volunteers to take a bite of a wheat cracker and dip the cracker for three seconds into about a tablespoon of a test dip. They then repeated the process with new crackers, for a total of either three or six double dips per dip sample. The team then analyzed the remaining dip and counted the number of aerobic bacteria in it. They didn’t determine whether any of the bacteria were harmful, and didn’t count anaerobic bacteria, which are harder to culture, or viruses. . . .

On average, the students found that 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. . . .

In the grand scheme of things, this kind of bacterial activity is probably pretty minor. It doesn't bother me a whole lot, but then I come from a family that shares food. (By the way, I don't do it myself out of consideration for others who do care.) On the other hand, this is something to think about:

“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.”

Oh, and that "5-second rule"?

Professor Dawson encourages his undergraduate teams to test popular conceptions about food safety in the laboratory. Last year he published a paper on the five-second rule, which states that food dropped on the floor can be safely eaten if you pick it up before you can count to five. The rule turned out to be false.
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...

And I'm pretty sure I saw another study about the 5-second rule proving that it was like.. 30 seconds, and that one was done on a cafeteria floor. And more important than that, who the hell is funding this stuff?

Yup, and it (and questions of acknowledgment of prior work) didn't escape the notice of the Ig Nobels :laugh:

http://improbable.com/2007/05/18/five-seco...out-background/

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And I'm pretty sure I saw another study about the 5-second rule proving that it was like.. 30 seconds, and that one was done on a cafeteria floor. And more important than that, who the hell is funding this stuff?

It was an undergraduate class on learning how to do research. I assume it came from the students' pockets.

PS: I am a guy.

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Shoot.  Now they're gonna outlaw dip.  Unsafe communal food or some such.

It's no biggie, to me. I tend not to hang out with the diseased, or inconsiderate.

LOL I do I am a nurse!!!

Yay hummingbirdkiss! My mom was a nurse and I attribute my lack of germ paranoia to that.

That being said, because I have a relatively small maw, I have taught myself to break the big chips and can only hope that's good enough for everyone. I try not to entertain those who would freak out over the possibility of human contact. And I love the new, smaller-sized chips!

To hell with poverty! We'll get drunk on cheap wine - Gang of Four

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Shoot.  Now they're gonna outlaw dip.  Unsafe communal food or some such.

It's no biggie, to me. I tend not to hang out with the diseased, or inconsiderate.

LOL I do I am a nurse!!!

Yay hummingbirdkiss! My mom was a nurse and I attribute my lack of germ paranoia to that.

My mom was also a nurse.

She used to joke before taking a swig of water directly from the bottle, "Germs only travel when there's someone looking."

That said, there are people who are more susceptible to germs, as the subject of hospital-acquired infections demonstrates, and I'm sure that your mom, like my mom and hummingbirdkiss, took the proper actions to prevent germ transmission when on the job.

That being said, because I have a relatively small maw, I have taught myself to break the big chips and can only hope that's good enough for everyone.  I try not to entertain those who would freak out over the possibility of human contact.  And I love the new, smaller-sized chips!

I tend to spoon some dip onto my plate if I'm at an event that has both plates and lots of people I don't interact with frequently.

That said, given how some gay men greet one another, a gathering of same is probably the last place I should hear people complaining about double-dipping.

Sandy Smith, Exile on Oxford Circle, Philadelphia

"95% of success in life is showing up." --Woody Allen

My foodblogs: 1 | 2 | 3

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Okay I'm with JAZ, jsmith, and Tess on this one. For instance, I'm house sharing right now and one of my housemates has bronchitis-- doctor diagnosed--and is on antibiotics. I'd have a real problem with her double dipping into anything I chose to eat. In general, my reasoning is pretty simple: I enjoy my food quite well with just my own saliva and, to the best of my ability, choose not to eat food with others' saliva in it. That's it. It's really quite simple.

BTW, I appreciate the fact that for many people when they were growing up it was never an issue for them. However, for me, my upbringing was that we didn't eat after each other nor did we ever use a spoon to taste something we were in the process of cooking and then stick the same spoon back into the pot. And yes the enzymes in your saliva do begin to actually digest the food. Or as mom would say "sour the pot."

I have to say that every time this or a similar discussion takes place here there are always those who insist on labelling people like myself (and others here) as being paranoid, clueless, blind, foolish, germaphobes, etc., etc. I don't understand the need for such melodrama when all we're doing is stating a personal food preference that's different from yours which is at least part of what eG is all about, IMHO. We really don't deserve all of the condescending and insulting remarks.

Edited to add: I for one never freak out over human contact. I'm actually quite warm, cuddly, and affectionate. :wink:

Edited by divalasvegas (log)

Inside me there is a thin woman screaming to get out, but I can usually keep the Bitch quiet: with CHOCOLATE!!!

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If you double-dip, you are getting in everyone else's space. You're sharing your saliva with them and you may be blocking access to the dip as well. It's like people who stand over a buffet table eating, or the people who run their hands over a tray of appetizers and touch a couple before they settle on one. The world is their airline meal on a tray.  I don't care if it's not a health risk; it's piggy. Take what you want to eat and let everyone else have their turn.

To this, I agree wholeheartedly. When I said "no biggie" I was looking a it purely from a clinical point of view. So we pass some bacteria betwixt us, with potential double dippers, I'm not gonna avoid guacamole because of it. I'm quite certain, in my almost 30 years, that I've put worse and more suspect stuff in my mouth.

The ACT of doing it, however, is nasty, greedy and....I'll trail off here, before I start a full-on rant. I also hate when people finger communal food, or stand or sit at the buffet table. (some rube sat at the CAKE table, at my wedding reception. Yes, the eensy little pedestal where the wedding cake was perched. Had his plate right on the edge, but I digress...)

Myself, I go with Sandy's method, I take some on my plate, at a function, even informal parties. At home, we're all up in there, it doesn't matter.

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whenever we get together with the inlaws my fil gives johnnybird a hard look and the NO DOUBLE DIPPING lecture. (his mom was a bit ocd about germs and dirt. even made the repairmen take their shoes off or, if they refused, climb in the kitchen window).

i'm with sandy on this. i mound some dip on a plate and eat off that - and i do double dip but from the other end of the chip.

Nothing is better than frying in lard.

Nothing.  Do not quote me on this.

 

Linda Ellerbee

Take Big Bites

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I have to say that every time this or a similar discussion takes place here there are always those who insist on labelling people like myself (and others here) as being paranoid, clueless, blind, foolish, germaphobes, etc., etc. I don't understand the need for such melodrama when all we're doing is stating a personal food preference that's different from yours which is at least part of what eG is all about, IMHO. We really don't deserve all of the condescending and insulting remarks.

I'm with you. Double-dipping is just yucky and inconsiderate.

A brief story...

Had a friend, Jean, that always made fun of me, like you say. I was being "ridiculous" when I didn't like eating after others.

So one day we were at a banquet, seated at a long table. The theme was "Mexican," so there were bowls of guacamole and salsa on the tables. I noticed that a lady sitting directly across from us was a particularly grevious double-dipper. Jean never noticed such things.

But she did notice me discreetly push the befouled bowls of salsa and guacamole over in her direction, while I snagged one from several inches farther down the table. She said nothing, and at the time, I didn't even realize she had noticed.

After the meal, she asked why.

I said, "Because that lady directly across from you double-dipped every damn thing she stuck into her mouth."

"So you pushed them over toward me? Well, THANKS a LOT!"

"Of course I did. Somebody had to share with her. You always tell me how ridiculous I am to worry about it. I simply didn't want you to feel ridiculous, too."

That was the last time I got that lecture.

Heheh.

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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whenever we get together with the inlaws my fil gives johnnybird a hard look and the NO DOUBLE DIPPING lecture. (his mom was a bit ocd about germs and dirt.  even made the repairmen take their shoes off or, if they refused, climb in the kitchen window).

I guess I'm one of the odd ones. I see no logical reason for anyone to put something in their mouths and then dip the remainder in a communal bowl. Never mind the sanitary considerations, simple courtesy should be enough reason to not do it. We also make repairmen take their shoes off, or wear booties, when they make service calls. But that's because we also don't wear shoes in our home.

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Double dippers should be grabbed by the scruff of their neck, frog marched to the street and made to lick, or drink from the gutter.

Now it's another thing entirely if one asks another if they want to try, or share, food or drink from the first's dish, cup or fork. I've taken a sip of wine, a bite of food that's offered, and I've offered drink and food that way too.

Edited by Susie Q (log)
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