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Raw flour or dough should not be eaten according to health experts. However, many Americans are unaware of the risk of flour-borne illness and try raw dough for cakes and cookies.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explain that flour does not look like a raw food, but usually it is. This means that has not been treated to kill microbes such as Escherichia coli (E. coli), a bacterium that causes food poisoning whose symptoms can be mild or severe.
Several outbreaks of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli infections in the past decade have been linked to flour and flour-associated products, raising concerns that consumption of Raw flour represents a risk to public health.
The only sure way to remove bacteria from foods made with flour is through cooking.
In the fall of 2019, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) collected data on perceptions regarding uncooked flour and on consumption behaviors through the Survey from Food Security and Nutrition, and found the following:
About a third of consumers reported consuming uncooked flour in the last 12 months.
Most US consumers they do not consider consuming raw flour to be risky. They indicated that raw flour is unlikely to contain germs that can make people sick.
“These findings indicate that American consumers are largely unaware to the extent that raw flour is risky”, says the study published in the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP).
The CDC urges consumers to resist the urge to eat raw dough while making breads or cookies, including prevent children from playing with raw dough, even dough used for crafts.
Symptoms of E. coli infection
Symptoms of E. coli infections vary, often including severe stomach cramps, diarrhea (often bloody), and vomiting.
People usually l get sick 3 to 4 days after eating the germs. Most recover within a week. Some develop a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome which can cause kidney failure, strokes and even death.
People of any age can be infected by E. coli. Very young children and the elderly are more likely to develop severe illness and hemolytic uremic syndrome than others.
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