Food Nooz: Raw Cookie Dough is Bad (LIES!)

Cookie dough is the sushi of desserts: raw, delicious, and potentially deadly. But it's SO delicious...

We've been barked at by health "experts" who keep warning us of E.coli or salmonella or whatever deadly pathogen might be lurking in unbaked cookie dough. To that we've said...well, nothing...because our mouths were full of delicious cookie dough.

So finally, once-and-for-all, for the last time, maybe: is raw cookie dough bad for you?

Yes.

Ironically-named Buzzfeed writer Michelle No asked experts from various fields about safety concerns with eating raw cookie dough.

She began with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) representative Peter Cassell. He reminded her that raw eggs can contain salmonella. BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! Uncooked flour can have E.coli. Both "bugs" are cooked out.

No then asked germ expert Kelly Reynolds about cookie dough, and she went grosser: that uncooked flour can also contain dirt, insects, and animal poop.

Is there a "safe" way to eat cookie dough? Pastry expert Cara Conaboy says...kinda.

The only way to make raw cookie dough safe is to cook it...which cancels out that whole "raw" part of it. Toasting flour for 5-10 minutes at 350°F should make the flour safe, just make sure it reaches an internal temperature of 160°F. The eggs have to be cooked to be safe, so if you're all about that cookie dough and not about those cookies, you'll have to leave the eggs out of the dough.

Bummer.

Click through for some safe cookie dough recipes.

H/T: Buzzfeed