Book 9, Question 137
Why Taste with a Clean Spoon Each Time?
We taste with a clean spoon each time because double-dipping puts mouth microbes back into the pot! Everyone has bacteria in their mouth. A fresh spoon keeps the food friendlier for everybody, especially for guests and little kids.
More fun facts
- In one study, food tasted sweeter when eaten from the small spoons usually used for desserts.
- Cheese tasted saltier when eaten off a knife than off a spoon, fork or toothpick.
- Each taste bud is made of about 50 to 150 taste receptor cells.
- Inventors have made spoons that use tiny electric currents to boost flavor.
- A student team designed a spoon shaped to make food feel sweeter without adding sugar.
Sources: BBC, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, Scientific American
Questions kids ask
Why not lick the tasting spoon and dip it again?
Germs from your mouth would go into the whole pot of food.