Don’t blame the messenger: Cookie dough is REALLY bad for you, says FDA

[brooklynite]

Salon:

The Food and Drug Administration announced this week that eating raw cookie dough is bad for you — but not for the reason you think.

Researchers at the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition attribute the health risks of consuming raw dough or batter to one ingredient: flour.

“People often understand the dangers of eating raw dough due to the presence of raw eggs and the associated risk with Salmonella,” the FDA wrote in a blog post announcing the dangers of raw dough consumption. “However, consumers should be aware that there are additional risks associated with the consumption of raw dough, such as particularly harmful strains of E. coli in a product like flour.”

The presence of E. coli in flour, according to the post, is due to the grain from which the flour is derived, which isn’t treated to kill bacteria, “So if an animal heeds the call of nature in the field, bacteria from the animal waste could contaminate the grain.”

This warning apparently made it's way around back in 2011; nobody seems to be heeding the call...

[louis-t]

1. Never understood the attraction.

I can't imagine eating the stuff. Bleh.

[Ex Lurker]

7. I'll take the chance nt

[bigwillq]

25. It's delish! (nt)

[In_The_Wind]

2. Kickin' it!

[GeorgeGist]

3. geeks gone wild.

[tonyt53]

4. A wild animal can do the same with organic products. Only wild bears shit in the woods.

[TlalocW]

5. Been eating cookie dough since I was a kid

Only negative consequence is the third nipple.. on my back.

Totally worth it though.

TlalocW

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. Are the sparks and smoke supposed to be coming from that nipple?

Just curious.

[OldHippieChick]

6. How can any sane person avoid eating

raw chocolate cookie dough? Un-American I tell you!

[joeybee12]

8. Raw oatmeal raisin cookie dough is nature's most perfect food...

I refuse to yield.

[FLPanhandle]

9. Wait...you mean people actually bake the cookie dough?

What a way to waste perfectly good cookie dough by cooking it.

[AngryOldDem]

11. LOL.

Isn't that the whole point of baking cookies in the first place?

[ohnoyoudidnt]

21. It's an unnecessary step and it wastes electriciry.

[AngryOldDem]

10. I had some Snickerdoodle dough this afternoon.

And I'm feeling fine. But thanks for your concern, FDA.

[spanone]

12. but some things are worth dying for!!!!

[LeftyMom]

13. Flour mills should irradiate the flour. Kills any e. coli, moth eggs, etc. Harmless to you.

But people are going to get sick and food is going to be wasted because that word sounds scary to people who fell asleep in science class.

[bhikkhu]

16. Just for fun -

http://www.mercola.com/article/irradiated/nuclear_lunch.htm

But I don't eat cookie dough anyway, for the same reasons I don't eat raw eggs. It hadn't occurred to me that raw flour had issues as well, so good information.

[LeftyMom]

18. Mercola is a quack.

[jmowreader]

22. I think they irradiated Mercola's head

[Major Nikon]

26. "irradiation destroys essential vitamins"

So does cooking.

Mercola is a snake oil salesman and a well known purveyor of junk science.

[WillowTree]

14. Nobody? Guess that makes me Nobody. In this context I can live with that.

[milestogo]

17. The only reason people say raw cookie dough is bad for you

is because they want to eat your raw cookie dough when you aren't looking.

[Jim Beard]

19. I am now retired from farming and am aware of E.coli By learning it the

hard way. I did some farmer breeding on some blue wheat. No animals in the patch and I bleached the area that it was stored with bleach. I could not control the harvester or the company that cleaned the wheat.

I had intentions of selling it to a food outlet to sell whole for grinding.

Later on I decided to get a few E. coli tests done and the results floored me. High levels of E.coli in all samples.

I was told by food people that it depended on the type of E.coli and that different test could but done but I decided to sell the seed for grazing rather than human consumination.

[cherokeeprogressive]

20. Been eating it all my fucking life and ain't about to stop now.

"Researchers" my ass.

LIFE is hazardous to your health, and the way things are going I'm fucking ecstatic to be on the downside. I might not make 100 but fuck if I'm gonna let anyone tell me what I should and shouldn't enjoy.

[IgelJames4]

23. Meh, I'll still be eating the stuff

It's just too delicious for me to not to. And like they say, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

[Major Nikon]

24. Eating anything that isn't cooked long enough for pasteurization has a pathogen risk

So the question becomes is eating raw flour really that much more of a risk than eating a salad or a cantaloupe. Going by the number of outbreaks associated with each of those things it appears not.