Why Egg-free Cookie Dough Is Still Unsafe To Eat Raw

While uncooked cookie dough may seem like an appetizing treat, even its egg-free variant can harbor harmful bacteria from raw flour, potentially causing food poisoning.

This is due to the processing that flour goes through — including bleaching and milling — which does not kill dangerous bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella.

Young children, the elderly, immunocompromised people, and those who are currently pregnant are particularly at risk of severe illness when consuming raw flour.

For this reason, you should practice strict hygiene when cooking with flour. Additionally, you should dispose of any flour that has been recalled due to bacteria contamination.

However, buying pre-heated, edible dough or heating the flour before adding it to your cookie dough can make your dough safe to eat, even without turning your dough into cookies.

To do this, place the flour in a thin layer on a baking sheet and put it in an oven, preheated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat it to 160 degrees Fahrenheit before ingesting.

Alternatively, you can use a microwave to heat the raw flour in 30-second intervals, checking the temperature after each round and removing it once it hits 160 degrees Fahrenheit.