The US Food and Drug Administration announced that it is no longer safe to eat raw cookie dough but not for the reason you think. We all know that eating raw eggs can give you salmonella. According to the Mayo Clinic salmonella is caused by raw poultry and eggs. The symptoms include nausea vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, fever, chills, headache, and bloody stool. The solution to that is make cookie dough without eggs right? Apparently not. It’s still not safe to eat raw cookie dough because it is no longer safe to eat raw flour according to the FDA.

It turns out that raw flour can harbor E. Coli which sounds just as bad as salmonella. According to the Mayo Clinic the symptom of E. Coli include diarrhea which may range from mild and water to severe and bloody, abdominal cramping, pain or tenderness and nausea and vomiting in some cases.

According to the CDC 38 people in 20 states have been sickened by E. Coli O121, which has been traced back to contaminated raw flour. The bottom line is, bake the cookies before you eat them (at least a little).

-Intern Meg