Eating Raw Cookie Dough Really Can Make You Sick -- In Unexpected Ways

On the most recent episode of abysmally-marketed NBC sitcom Whitney, the title character and her live-in boyfriend, Alex, decided to adopt new holiday traditions instead of miserably visiting their families as they always had in the past. One of the crucial departures from the status quo came when the couple was making chocolate chip cookies. Alex tells Whitney that his mom never let him eat raw cookie dough, and Whitney responds by saying that she isn't his mother and wishes her boyfriend "Happy Salmonella" by way of giving him permission to eat away. He eats the cookie dough.

Bad move, Alex!

OK, fine, in the confines of the half-hour episode, he didn't become visibly ill. But a recent review of a 2009 food poisoning outbreak related to cookie dough shows just how much of a risk he was taking by eating the raw cookie dough.

Salmonella is a problem, as Whitney said. Fifty thousand people get salmonella every year, about a third of them under the age of four. The risk is especially when you make the cookie dough at home. Pre-made cookie mixes often use pasteurized eggs, which do not contain salmonella bacteria.

But this most recent study showed that even pre-made cookie dough presents real risks when it isn't cooked properly before being eaten. In the case of the 2009 outbreak, which sickened 77 people, the culprit seems to have been E. coli bacteria that originated in the flour within the dough, not the eggs. Most people don't eat raw flour often, so it doesn't immediately come to mind as a dangerous vector of pathogens.

The report indicated that the group most affected by the outbreak was teenaged girls, a group that's not exactly known for listening to all of mom's advice. But seriously ladies, even if you won't listen to your mom, listen to HuffPost Food, to the entire scientific community and to Whitney Cummings: Don't eat raw cookie dough.

Comments

[Lmurwood]

01:17 AM on 12/14/2011

I have my own chickens it helps ease my mind I also wash and disinfect my shells.

[Jamie Wieloch Greco]

06:37 PM on 12/13/2011

I don't freaking smoke, drink too much, pass myself around to people, take the bad meds, I try to be kind and shower regularly. Darn it, I'm going to eat raw cookie dough. Danger may not be my middle name, but sometimes I gotta run wild.

[owiseone]

02:53 PM on 12/13/2011

The connection of food poisoning to flour is similar to the recent problems with fresh bean sprouts. The beans are stored in warehouses, as is wheat before milling. Very common are the rhodents which contaminate the beans and grain. When beans are sprouted, the sprouts can transmit whatever pathogen was in the beans. When the wheat is milled into flour, it looks safe, but who knows what pathogens could be in it.
I do not dismiss this warning at all because of the reality of the natural cycle of eggs and wheat.

[stjoshy]

02:48 PM on 12/13/2011

OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM!!!! for all of the believers in this nonsense, please send cookie monster all your unused cookie dough at 123 Sesame St. thank you in advance. OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM!!!!1

[1kant2]

11:11 PM on 12/12/2011

Bahhhh!!!!!

Look at the numbers. Its all statistics. When you break it down you have a better chance of getting K!11ed in a car wreck today then getting food poisoning. Use fresh eggs, and common sense and a smack of raw cookie dough now and then is fine.

[FarmerBee]

10:10 PM on 12/12/2011

Grew up using my hands to mix ingredients, eating raw cookie dough, licking beaters. Of me and my 10 siblings, not one of us ever got sick. I hate living in this over protective, hypochondriac time.

[Al Schrader]

07:00 PM on 12/12/2011

Pathogens like salmonella expire above 145 o F . You can bake your cookies as a "soft-batch" by baking at reduced temperatures like 225 o F. They come out of the oven soft and gooey and not too unlike the dough and are safe....Al-

[Anzie Yangmi]

05:29 PM on 12/12/2011

THANK YOU HUFFPOST!!! THIS MAKES SOOOOOOOOO MUCH SENSE. I'M BEING SERIOUS AND NOT SARCASTIC! I've been telling people to Lay off the Cookie Dough because you CAN get sick, the flour, the eggs, the baking soda/powder in raw form is DISGUSTING & not the safest thing to eat raw! At least Ceviche, the lime cooks the shrimp where it's edible and non-threatening but cookie dough has nothin cookin' it except when its in the oven, The PROPER way to eat it...

[shastaman]

01:04 AM on 12/13/2011

My wife and daaughters like to eat the cookie dough and I have to remind them that God invented cookie dough so dads can have some cookies and some pride in his daughters culinary skils

[ninjacb]

04:18 PM on 12/12/2011

i have been eating raw cookie dough my entire life. and never have i gotten sick. an article like this is certainly not going to dissuade me after all this time.

[BamaRainbow]

04:15 PM on 12/12/2011

Really? "In the case of the 2009 outbreak, which sickened 77 people, the culprit seems to have been E. coli bacteria that originated in the flour within the dough, not the eggs." And we're supposed to be concerned about 77 people out of 300 million plus in the US? I mean, in 2006, some 200 people in California became ill after eating raw spinach (the primary ingredient in a "healthy" spinach salad) and three died.

And if it was really the flour, then how many kids are at risk from "cleaning the cake bowl" when mom's making a cake (most of which contain flour), something which is rarely considered as risky as "eating raw cookie dough?"

Maybe the REAL solution is to ensure that the companies selling us all these foods which have to be cooked before consuming safely should, instead, spend a little more time ensuring that their plants EXCEED the health regulations (ooh--I used a bad word to most GOPers). Additionally, maybe they should be inspecting their sources before harvesting and processing and selling to consumers. But, nah. That would be such a waste of time and possibly eat into their profits (of course, no customers would really eat into those profits in a much more serious way).

[liddlelady]

04:09 PM on 12/12/2011

What about cookie dough ice cream?

[Peeep]

07:19 PM on 12/12/2011

Good question.

[irishdoc]

04:30 PM on 12/13/2011

It's designed to be eaten raw and never cooked so it has a different chemical make up and uses different ingredients

[mkthinker]

04:02 PM on 12/12/2011

77 people. (35 of whom went to the hospital, so in my mind really only 35 people)- got sick in a Year? Thousands of people eat raw dough every year. This is crazy.

[jchowell3657]

03:34 PM on 12/12/2011

If that's what kills me then it's my time to go. Bring on the cookie dough!

[simzillyjp]

03:52 PM on 12/12/2011

At least you'll die happy.

[asrlrm]

03:25 PM on 12/12/2011

This is funny about ten mins ago i just ate some raw cookie dough i keep in my refrigerator and i came across this article. Ive been eating cookie dough for for aprox 33 yrs and ive never gotten sick from it. I love Pillsbury cookie dough ( sugar cookies ) it great!

[mmvernes]

02:54 PM on 12/12/2011

I've eaten raw cookie dough & cake batter all my life & never got sick yet!!! Love raw cake batter