Contamination implications of eating peanut butter with a spoon
Say I'm eating peanut butter out of a jar with a spoon, thus presumably transferring some of my saliva into the bottle.
Some research indicates that this sort of double-dipping might be a health hazard if the food is then going to be consumed by others.
But are there any meaningful risks of contamination if I'm the only one who will be eating the peanut butter?
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In addition to actually adding unwanted species, you're also adding moisture to a food that's otherwise very low in water. This will change its ability to support the growth of mould and bacteria in the damp bits.
If you polish off a jar in a few days and always eat the bit you previously got saliva on, I'm sure the risks will be vanishingly small. If you leave it for a couple of weeks after dipping in a well-licked spoon, I'm less confident.
As a practical measure it would seem easy to spoon out as much as you want into another container, then eat that. That also means you have the option of sharing it rather than having to refuse on the basis that you might as well have spat in it.
Even if you eat it all by yourself, and all the bacteria is sourced from you; you still have food safety concerns. As those bacteria might multiply in the jar, and start producing toxins as well.
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