Is “double dipping” chips really as bad as Seinfeld makes it out to be?

It is one of the most famous and most damning accusations in all of popular culture: “You double dipped the chip! You dipped the chip, you took a bite, and you dipped again!” Actor Kieran Mulroney as “Timmy” levied those harsh words at Jason Alexander’s George Costanza in “The Implant,” a classic episode of Seinfeld that originally aired on February 25, 1993. At the time, Mulroney claimed, “That’s like putting your whole mouth right in the dip!” But is it really? An undergraduate research team at Clemson decided to investigate. Their findings were both multi-faceted and grim.
Testing to see if there is bacterial transfer seems straightforward, but there are more subtle questions to be answered. How does the acidity of the dip affect bacteria, and do different dips affect the outcome? Members of the no-double-dipping enforcement squad, prepare to have your worst, most repulsive suspicions confirmed.
Bitten crackers, the researchers found, transferred “about 1,000 more bacteria per milliliter” when dipped into water, as opposed to unbitten crackers. But what happens when dips of different viscosity acidity, including salsa, chocolate, and cheese, are brought into the mix? Here is what the Clemson team observed: