People always freak out about eating raw cookie dough for fear of salmonella due to the raw eggs.
Yet raw egg whites have been a common ingredient in fancy cocktails for ages and its never been questioned or regarded as dangerous.
What gives?
In: Biology
Food microbiologist here.
A lot of people have already commented on the cookie dough part, so I’ll leave that alone. I’ll try and give some insight into the egg vs. egg white part that u/trashpersonalert asked about as well.
In chickens, if it is infected with *Salmonella* species such as Enteriditis, Typhimurium, Heidelberg, the bacteria can colonize the ovaries of the chicken. The ovary is where the **yolk** is stored before being released down the oviduct, where the rest of the egg forms. So the bacteria will colonize within the yolk, making the yolk from an infected chicken unsafe*. (See below)
Even if there is bacteria in the egg white, the egg white itself contains very little nutrition for bacteria and so growth is unlikely. The yolk, on the other hand, is plenty nutritious for the bacteria.
So egg whites are generally safer to consume, but unless you are severely immunocompromised, or consume a massive quantities of eggs, or a rotten egg, chances are you’ll be ok.
Another thing to note about the cookie dough, all the sugar and other components make it ripe for bacterial growth. So even if the eggs used to make cookie dough have a very low number of bacteria, over time that number will exponentially increased until it hits or exceeds the infective dose. Especially since *Salmonella* **can** grow at temperatures as low as 5 degrees C.
Edit: Formatting
You can buy pasteurized egg whites.
Also, raw eggs aren’t the only dangerous ingredient. Raw flour can be dangerous too.
The danger from eating raw cookie dough is from the flour, not necessarily the eggs. Raw flower can have ecoli and dangerous bacteria in it, since it’s just ground up grains and is not cooked or otherwise processed.
Bartender here.
TL;DR Eggs for cocktails are prepared(tested)
It’s not like there is no problem with using egg white (or even yolk) in cocktail. All depends what are the sanitary laws in your country. In Poland you need a certificate that the eggs were UV exposed. You can take this when buying eggs (for restaurant, bars etc) or doing it by yourself.
If you run some club and you don’t offer food, you aren’t allowed to make egg based cocktails, because you need permission for selling food. If you do sell food you need to take a lot of certificates from your sellers.
Because people make a big deal out of raw eggs for almost no reason.
1 in 20k eggs will have salmonella, about.
How many eggs have you eaten in your life?
I think raw flour is also a culprit. Flour needs to be sterilized for the bird and other animal shit.
Hello! I’m a food scientist, and to address your concern about the cookie dough specifically, cookie dough is labeled with warnings not necessarily because of the eggs (although there will always be concerns with raw poultry products and salmonella), but because of the flour.
Think of it this way. Flour is a processed grain that is essentially taken from the field and ground into flour by mechanical means. While there are other steps sometimes involved (whole wheat flour vs. regular flour, cake flour vs. regular flour all involve different processing steps), the flour is not taken through enough steps during processing that can guarantee pathogens of concern are killed. So, bacteria like salmonella, E. coli, etc. can be introduced in the field or during processing, meaning it can end up ground right in the final flour.
However, this does not mean you should be scared of flour now. Flour is not a product typically eaten raw (ie. You don’t eat flour with a spoon), and almost everything you make with it will go through a significant heat kill step (baking, cooking, etc.), AKA you are getting rid of the bacteria.
This leads to why manufacturers put the warning on cookie dough. People enjoy raw cookie dough, so they are at risk of eating raw flour.
Yes, salmonella may exist in the cookie dough. Will it hurt you? No, not likely unless you are a person with a weakened immune system susceptible to foodborne illness (meaning it essentially takes less bacteria to make you sick because your body is not as well equipped to protect itself), or the cookie dough was temperature abused (meaning the cookie dough was not properly refrigerated, leading the cookie dough reaching an internal temperature that allows the bacteria to multiply more quickly, and more bacteria=more of a chance at getting sick).
EDIT: Here’s a succinct source from the FDA for those interested in this cookie dough info:
[FDA Cookie Dough Guidance ](https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/raw-doughs-raw-deal-and-could-make-you-sick)
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I heard that sign is not about raw eggs but about raw flour that might contain ecoli. The salmonella isnt actually in the eggs but rather on the shell.
I always thought this too, but it turns out it’s the raw flour in the uncooked cookie dough that’s actually the problem. The egg fear is misplaced, but eating raw flour is really bad for you.
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