Dippin’ strips
pack calories

The recent flurry of television ads for the latest innovation, Pizza Hut's "dippin' strips," has raised both questions and concerns, such as potential food-safety problems related to double dipping.

Sauces have been used for thousands of years to add flavor to foods and in some cases to mask off-flavors caused by lack of freshness. Typically, sauces and dressings are served over foods. Dips, on the other hand, give the consumer the ability to determine the amount of sauce (and calories) to be added to each and every bite of food.

Question: How do the sauces affect the nutritional value of the pizza?

Answer: Pizza Hut dipping pizzas come with three sauces: marinara, garlic and ranch. Consuming all of the sauces would add about 350 calories to the whole pizza. Average eaters who do not double dip are likely to have dip left over.

Q: How does the calorie content compare?

A: Two small strips are about equal in calories to one slice from a 12-inch medium pan pizza. It might seem that the smaller pieces would decrease the total amount consumed, but an unscientific study of two consumers (us), found that the strips seemed more like finger foods, each enjoyed as a morsel. The result was that we ate more than usual and therefore consumed more calories. The 16 strips in a whole cheese pizza or vegetarian pizza provide about 2,250 calories.

Q: What food-safety concerns are related to dipping pizza in sauces?

A: The concerns are the same for all shared foods. Poor dipping etiquette can add bacteria and viruses to the dip, to be passed to others who are sharing with you. The basic rule: Do not put any part of a food or utensil that has touched your mouth into the dip.

With pizza strips, it is easy to get two clean dips by dipping each clean end once. There will likely be two more bites -- but use a spoon, to prevent dip contamination.

At www.pizzahut.com, nutrition facts and "The Art of Dipping: Complete Guide to Dipping Etiquette" are provided. It would be a good idea for this information to be provided with the pizza strips.