Colts?  Saints?  Not sure what we’re talking about?  Whether you’re a Super Bowl fan or not, you’re probably one of the millions of Americans that will be gathering together this Sunday to party.

The most important element to any respectable Super Bowl party–second only to the game itself–is the food.  Wings, veggies, and chips (the most popular party fare) are often simply vehicles for transporting salsa and cheese from the bowl to the mouth, which left us wondering:  How bad IS double-dipping?

"Did you just double-dip?"

You’ve heard of it, the social faux-pas made famous by George Costanza in a famous episode of “Seinfeld.”  The double-dip occurs when a food item is dipped into a communal bowl of dip (read salsa, cheese, ranch, cool whip, etc.), enters the mouth, and the RE-enters the dip.  Is is often said that once you double-dip, the communal salsa becomes as dirty as the inside of your mouth.  But is it true?

That’s what students at Clemson University set out to discover.  Using wheat crackers and a bowl of dip.  They each bit a cracker and then placed it in the dip for three seconds.  The process was repeated several times per student with new crackers and new bowls of dip.  After analyzing the dips, the students concluded that three to six “double-dips” transferred close to 10,000 bacteria from the eater’s mouth to the dip.  Now imagine that, multiplied by everyone at your party.

Food microbiologist Paul Dawson told the New York Times, “Before you double-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 are sharing their saliva with you.”

Moral: Be a team player and keep it to a single-dip.

Woah.