It's common nature to sneak a few bites of cookie dough while baking, but the CDC says these seemingly harmless bites can have some not so harmless bacteria.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that raw cookie dough contains harmless germs like E. coli that are only killed when cooked. The raw eggs in cookie dough also could possibly contain salmonella.
In 2016, an outbreak of E. coli infections linked to raw flour made 63 people sick.
Here are the recommendations by the CDC on how to handle raw flour products this holiday season:
- Do not taste or eat any raw dough or batter, whether for cookies, tortillas, pizza, biscuits, pancakes, or crafts made with raw flour, such as homemade play dough or holiday ornaments.
- Do not let children play with or eat raw dough, including dough for crafts.
- Bake or cook raw dough and batter, such as cookie dough and cake mix, before eating.
- Follow the recipe or package directions for cooking or baking at the proper temperature and for the specified time.
- Do not make milkshakes with products that contain raw flour, such as cake mix.
- Do not use raw, homemade cookie dough in ice cream.
- Cookie dough ice cream sold in stores contains dough that has been treated to kill harmful bacteria.
- Keep raw foods such as flour or eggs separate from ready-to eat-foods. Because flour is a powder, it can spread easily.
- Follow label directions to refrigerate products containing raw dough or eggs until they are cooked.
- Clean up thoroughly after handling flour, eggs, or raw dough:
- Wash your hands with running water and soap after handling flour, raw eggs, or any surfaces that they have touched.
- Wash bowls, utensils, countertops, and other surfaces with warm, soapy water.
