The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning earlier this week that people should never, ever eat raw cookie dough due to concerns of E. coli bacteria contamination. But what about other products that contain raw ingredients, such as cookie dough ice cream?
In June, a 20-state E. coli outbreak was traced to flour produced by General Mills at a Kansas City, Miss., plant, and sold under the names Gold Medal, Gold Medal Wondra and Signature Kitchen’s. Leslie Smoot, an FDA Office of Food Safety senior advisor, says, “Flour is derived from a grain that comes directly from the field and typically is not treated to kill bacteria.” Animal waste can contaminate the grain, which is then harvested and milled into flour. According to the FDA, any flour can contain disease-causing bacterias.
The warning is now clear that any uncooked dough that contains flour should not be eaten, including cake batter, tortillas, bread or, of course, cookie dough. It is also unsafe for children to play with dough. However, the FDA says that raw cookie dough sold commercially is safe to eat. This includes cookie dough ice cream, which is intended to be eaten raw.
Eggs and flour in pre-made commercial cookie dough have been treated to kill bacteria. So, thankfully, cookie dough ice cream is not included in the warning. In fact, most pre-made cookie dough has been through a pasteurization process for the eggs and a heat treatment for the flour. Nestle has been using this process since 2010, after a 2009 outbreak of E. coli was traced to pre-packaged cookie dough.
So there’s no need to dump the Ben & Jerry’s. But don’t make your own cookie dough ice cream. Buy the commercially made products to be on the safe side. And manufacturers of raw cookie dough would still prefer that you don’t eat their product raw.