The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention isn’t rolling with cookie dough.
What’s going on: The CDC warned consumers this week that eating raw cookie dough or cake mixes can be harmful to your health. The announcement comes in the middle of the holiday season when cookies and cakes are aplenty.
Why not?: The homemade dough contains raw flour and eggs, which can cause life-threatening disease. For example, in 2016, an outbreak of E. coli infections linked to raw flour impacted 63 people across the country, according to the CDC.
- Raw dough can contain bacteria that can cause disease, according to CDC. Raw eggs can contain salmonella, which can make you sick.
- Basically, the CDC wants you to stay clear.
- “When you prepare homemade cookie dough, cake mixes or even bread, you may be tempted to taste a bite before it is fully cooked. But steer clear of this temptation — eating or tasting unbaked products that are intended to be cooked, such as dough or batter, can make you sick. Children can get sick from handling or eating raw dough used for crafts or play clay, too,” according to the CDC.
However: Don’t fret, there is some cookie dough you can eat. USA Today reports there are cookie doughs that are advertised as safe to eat without baking.
- Cookie dough found in products like ice cream have already heated the dough to kill the germs, according to NBC News.
Stay clean: The CDC advises people to keep uncooked foods separate from ready-to-eat foods. Follow the label instructions for refrigeration. And make sure to clean up thoroughly after you handle flour and raw dough.
Flashback: I wrote about how the CDC warned U.S. consumers that they shouldn’t eat romaine lettuce back in November since it might have contained E. coli. Thirty-two people were infected by the outbreak, which spread across 11 states.
E. coli: The bacteria causes about 30 deaths per year, according to the CDC.
