Really, Guys, Don't Eat Raw Cookie Dough

Just in time for the holiday baking season, researchers have published a study proving that raw cookie dough is dangerous — even if store-bought.

The study, published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, looks back at the 2009 E. coli outbreak that affected 77 people in 30 states. Of the 35 hospitalized patients, 33 of them had eaten raw store-bought cookie dough.

Yes, oftentimes, prepackaged cookie dough will be pasteurized to get rid of most bacteria, but chocolate chip cookie dough from a tube is still not ready to eat.

"My recommendation, the general recommendation, is that you should not consume raw cookie dough, regardless of who makes it, whether it's made at home or as a commercial product," a CDC representative told the AP.

Still, researchers found that eating raw cookie dough is a popular practice, especially among teen girls, and that some of the hospitalized patients from 2009 never intended to bake the cookies.

They suggest that manufacturers start making their cookie dough as a ready-to-eat product, so teen girls everywhere can eat their dough without qualms. (For now, though, there's raw cookie-dough ice cream, which is ready-to-eat, but probably not as satisfying.)

The Daily Byte is a regular column dedicated to covering interesting food news and trends across the country. Click here for previous columns.