CDC Holiday Warning: Say No To Raw Cookie Dough
(CBS Local/ CBS Baltimore)-- Making cookies this holiday season? Resist the raw cookie dough. The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention is using the holiday season to remind people that raw cookie dough can cause illnesses like e. coli and salmonella.
In 2016, an e. coli outbreak linked to raw cookie dough sickened 63 people, the CDC reported.
The CDC also asks people to check for recalled flour products, because flour often sits on the shelf for a while before it's used.
Cookie dough also contains raw eggs, which can be linked to salmonella poisoning.
The CDC suggests these steps to keep you and your family safe 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, counter tops, and other surfaces with warm, soapy water.
