This response is so nice, it may make you think twice about a favorite baking tradition.
When someone asked on Twitter if it’s safe to eat uncooked cookie dough, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, replied, channeling his inner Dr. Seuss with a rhyme:
“You can not eat it in a house, You can not eat it with a mouse;
We do not like it here or there, We do not like it anywhere;
We do not like raw chocolate chip cookie dough, We do not like it, #FDA we are.”
While the last line is a little rough, you get the idea. While some kids might consider Gottlieb’s response on Monday a bit grinch-esque, it’s a riff off a popular section of the Seuss classic, “Green Eggs and Ham.”
https://twitter.com/SGottliebFDA/status/1072144200114806784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1072144200114806784&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fit-bad-eat-raw-cookie-dough-fda-commissioner-gives-dr-suess-answer-1252977
The point is consuming raw cookie dough, which contains uncooked eggs, may increase your risk of salmonella poisoning. And that’s not the only concern.
According to The Washington Post, 60 people who ate raw cookie dough in 2016 ended up with E.coli infections from chowing down on the pre-cooked sweet. In those cases, the bacteria wasn’t from the eggs, but from the pre-cooked flour. That bacteria is killed in the cookie process.
Baking cookies for Santa? Don’t eat the raw dough! It contains uncooked eggs that may contain Salmonella bacteria pic.twitter.com/cJFoHKwFWa
— USDA Food Safety & Inspection Service (@USDAFoodSafety) December 24, 2014
In others words, even though eating cookie dough may be yummy, it could really mess up your tummy!