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Even Without Eggs, Eating Uncooked Dough Can be Raw Deal
USAgNet - 11/21/2018

You have probably heard it's a bad idea to eat uncooked dough because it contains raw eggs. But raw flour can also make you sick, says Londa Nwadike, extension state food safety specialist for Kansas State University and University of Missouri.

As the holiday season approaches, Nwadike urges people to resist the temptation to taste uncooked batter or dough, no matter how delicious it might be.

"Bacteria from animal waste and other sources can contaminate grain in fields or throughout the grain transportation and flour production system," Nwadike says. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, flour from milled grain is typically not treated to kill bacteria.

"That means it's not safe to eat until properly cooked," she added.

You might have licked cake batter or cookie dough from spoons lots of times with no ill effects. But some haven't been so lucky, Nwadike says.

In 2016, more than 60 people grew sick from E. coli bacteria linked to contaminated raw flour, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 10 million pounds of flour and flour-containing products were recalled, including bread, pastry and pancake mixes.

What about cookie dough ice cream? Nwadike says commercially purchased cookie dough ice cream should be safe because it contains heat-treated flour and pasteurized eggs. But that might not be true of store-bought cookie dough for baking. A 2009 outbreak traced to prepackaged raw cookie dough sickened 72 people; many of them were hospitalized.


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