Why You Shouldn't Eat Raw Cookie Dough

‘Tis the season to eat a lot of cookies – and if you are the type to eat raw cookie dough, you better think twice, experts say.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control looked at the cause of an E. coli outbreak in 2009, and found the problem wasn’t the eggs, but the flour.

“The store-bought cookie dough, the problem wasn’t with the eggs, because the eggs were actually pasteurized; the problem was with the flour,” said Denise Cole, a registered dietitian with the Cleveland Clinic. “It was not pasteurized. And when you do that, you get rid of all those bad pathogens.

Cole said in the flour was the only raw agricultural product in the store-bought cookie dough.

“So the bottom line is, you probably don’t want to eat raw cookie dough,” she added. “Especially if you’re having issue with your health, you’re very young, or an elderly person or have some kind of immune-compromised system.”

The study appears in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.