Buzz
Baking festive cookies—and sneaking a taste of the dough—has long been a beloved holiday tradition. While you’re probably aware that raw eggs can pose a Salmonella risk, you might not realize that eating batter, even without eggs, isn’t safe. According to a report from The New York Times, uncooked flour can also lead to illness, as highlighted by a recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The study followed an E. coli outbreak that occurred in late 2015 and 2016, infecting 63 people across 24 states and prompting the recall of over 10 million pounds of General Mills flour and many products containing it. Researchers found that strains of E. coli bacteria can survive in raw flour (just like they can in moist foods like hamburger meat and produce), and might pose a more significant health risk than previously thought.
"Connecting this outbreak to flour was difficult," the report states, according to CNN. "Raw or undercooked flour consumption isn’t typically included in most foodborne illness surveys, so epidemiologists initially couldn’t determine if patients had consumed raw flour."
Public health experts had to carry out extensive interviews with 10 individuals affected by the outbreak to pinpoint flour as the source, according to Science News. Indeed, two of the individuals remembered eating raw cookie dough shortly before they became ill. Tracing the flour led to the same production facility, and further tests confirmed the presence of E. coli strains.
E. coli can remain dormant in flour for months, only becoming active when mixed with eggs, oil, and water. To avoid infection, bakers should heat-treat raw flour, wash their hands with hot water and soap after handling it, or (unfortunately) resist the urge to taste the batter before baking.
