The holiday season is officially here, which means so is baking your favorite sweets. However, the Center for Disease Control has warned the public not to be tempted by the sweet, delicious raw dough.
CDC officials say even though it's tasty, the unbaked products can make you sick.
The bacteria in flour are killed when the food is cooked. Officials say harmful germs can contaminate grain while it’s still in the field or at other steps as flour is produced. In 2016, an outbreak of E. coli infections linked to raw flour made 63 people sick.
They organization issued the following guidelines to make sure you and your family stays healthy and safe:
- Do not taste or eat any raw dough or batter, whether for cookies, tortillas, pizza, biscuits, pancakes, or crafts made with raw flour, such as homemade play dough or holiday ornaments.
- Do not let children play with or eat raw dough, including dough for crafts.
- Bake or cook raw dough and batter, such as cookie dough and cake mix, before eating.
- Follow the recipe or package directions for cooking or baking at the proper temperature and for the specified time.
- Do not make milkshakes with products that contain raw flour, such as cake mix.
- Do not use raw, homemade cookie dough in ice cream.
- Keep raw foods such as flour or eggs separate from ready-to eat-foods. Because flour is a powder, it can spread easily.
- Follow label directions to refrigerate products containing raw dough or eggs until they are cooked.
- Clean up thoroughly after handling flour, eggs, or raw dough:
