A group of researchers from the CDC working a food poisoning outbreak that occurred back in 2009, reports in a paper published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, that the culprit was raw cookie dough made and sold by companies in bulk for use in baking cookies. Unfortunately the team found that many people chose to eat the dough raw, rather than use it to make cookies. Until now however, it remained a mystery as to which part of the cookie dough caused the outbreak. Most assumed it was the eggs, as that seemed an obvious choice. However, commercial cookie-dough makers pasteurize their eggs, thus, it remained a mystery, until now. Though they can’t prove it definitively, the evidence strongly suggests, the teams says, that it was the flour used in the processing that was responsible for the outbreak. Unlike virtually all of the other ingredients, flour is seldom if ever heat treated to kill bacteria, as it’s seen as a rather innocuous ingredient that is used mostly in products that are cooked.
Because of their findings, the team suggests that people refrain from eating raw cookie-dough, both the commercial kind, and the kind people make at home. The kind made at home, they note, has several ingredients in it that could very easily carry the e.coli bacteria. Cooking of course, kills such bacteria, rendering the resultant cookies, perfectly safe to eat.
This report come as quite a shock to the prepackaged food industry which has become more vigilant regarding vegetables in light of recent outbreaks due to bacteria found in broccoli and cauliflower, but has obviously done little worrying about the possibility of infections due to flour. This is likely to change of course, but possibly only if more evidence is found. The claims made by the researchers in this new study come about due to the process of elimination, rather than the finding of a true smoking gun. To find the source, they simply eliminated each ingredient as a suspect until only flour was left. That may not be enough for some manufacturers who foresee spending millions to heat flour before it’s sent out the door.
They may not get a choice. If the companies that make products that contain flour that is never cooked before consumption (such as some nutrient bars) don’t change their ways, the government is likely to make them do so. In the meantime, consumers can expect to see warning labels on prepackaged cookie-dough, warning that eating it before cooking could be hazardous to their health.