Raw Dough’s a
Raw Deal and Could Make You Sick

Do you find it
hard to resist gobbling up a piece of raw dough when making cookies, or letting
your children scrape the bowl? Do your kids use raw dough to make ornaments or
homemade “play” clay? Do you eat at family restaurants that give kids raw dough
to play with while you’re waiting for the food?
If your answer
to any of those questions is yes, that could be a problem. Eating raw dough or
batter—whether it’s for bread, cookies, pizza or tortillas—could make you, and
your kids, sick, says Jenny Scott, a senior advisor in FDA’s Center for Food
Safety and Applied Nutrition.
The bottom
line for you and your kids do not eat raw dough. And even though there are
websites devoted to “flour crafts,” don’t give your kids raw dough or baking
mixes that contain flour to play with. Why? Flour,
regardless of the brand, can contain bacteria that cause disease. The U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), along with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) and state and local officials, is investigating an outbreak of
infections that illustrates the dangers of eating raw dough. Dozens of people
across the country have been sickened by a strain of bacteria called Shiga
toxin-producing E. coli O121.
The investigation
found that raw dough eaten or handled by some of the patients was made with
General Mills flour produced in a Kansas City, Missouri, facility. Subsequent
tests by the FDA linked bacteria in a flour sample to bacteria from people who
had become ill.
General Mills
conducted a voluntary recall of 10 million pounds of flour sold under
three brand names: Gold Medal, Signature Kitchen’s, and Gold Medal Wondra. The
varieties include unbleached, all-purpose, and self-rising flours. Flour has a
long shelf life, and many people store bags of flour for a long time. If you
have any of these recalled items in your home, you should throw them away. Some of the recalled flours had been sold to
restaurants that allow children to play with dough made from the raw flour
while waiting for their meals. CDC is advising restaurants not to give
customers raw dough.
People often
understand the dangers of eating raw dough due to the presence of raw eggs and
the associated risk with Salmonella. However, consumers should be aware
that there are additional risks associated with the consumption of raw dough,
such as particularly harmful strains of E. coli in a product like flour.
“Flour is
derived from a grain that comes directly from the field and typically is not
treated to kill bacteria,” says Leslie Smoot, Ph.D., a senior advisor in FDA’s
Office of Food Safety and a specialist in the microbiological safety of
processed foods. So if an animal heeds the call of nature in the field,
bacteria from the animal waste could contaminate the grain, which is then
harvested and milled into flour. Common “kill
steps” applied during food preparation and/or processing (so-called because
they kill bacteria that cause infections) include boiling, baking, roasting,
microwaving, and frying. But with raw dough, no kill step has been used.
And don’t make
homemade cookie dough ice cream either. If that’s your favorite flavor, buy
commercially made products. Manufacturers should use ingredients that include
treated flour and pasteurized eggs.
Source: U.S.
Food & Drug Administration
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