Making risk decisions: the

case of raw eggs in cookie

dough
Food safety isnt dogmatic, its based on risk, the product
of the likelihood of the hazard and severity of an illness. L.V. Anderson of Slate tackles risk as it relates to
raw eggs in homemade cookie dough. She makes the case that the chance of Salmonella in eggs is
relatively low (1 in 20,000 eggs) and many egg-related illnesses are linked to pooled and/or temperature
abused eggs (see Australia).
Every time I have made a type of cake or cookie for the recipe column I write for Slate, Ive unfailingly
consumed some of the uncooked mixture. Heck, every time Ive made a type of cake or cookie just for
fun, Ive unfailingly consumed some of the uncooked mixture. And I have never in my 27 years gotten
salmonella poisoning.
A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation: I estimate that Ive baked cookies, cake, or brownies once a
month, on average, since I started baking by myself around the age of 12 and that I have tasted the
dough or batter every time. Lets say that each of those batches of cookies, cake, or brownies has
contained two eggsa conservative estimate. This means that I have ingested the innards ofat the
very least360 uncooked eggs in my life.
Using data from the 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one in 20,000
eggs is internally contaminated with salmonella. Since salmonella prevention practices have improved
since then, the egg contamination rate is probably even lower now.
Speaking personally, the statistics havent scared me off unpasteurized eggs for good. If I continued
consuming batter and dough containing about two raw eggs per month, I would likely encounter only one
SE-contaminated egg over the course of 833 years. And if I remain generally healthy, I might not even get
sick from that SE-contaminated egg. Of course, by the time Im 860, my immune system will probably be
weak enough that Ill want to avoid unpasteurized eggs. In the meantime, though, Ill take my chances on
that cake batter.
Thats a pretty reasoned
exposure decision although
Im not sure severity comes
into her calculation. Salmonella
isnt like norovirus where
symptoms are acute but
generally limited to 2-3 days.
Salmonellosis can often lead to
hospitalizations and in some
cases reactive arthritis.
Homemade cookie dough with
two individual eggs also isnt
nearly the same as egg dishes
at food service where a lot of
pooling happens (like sauces
and Caesar salad dressing).
Each egg added into the mix
magnifies the risk. Uncooked
foods also carry other risks associated with other ingredients. A 2009 E. coli O157 outbreak linked to raw
cookie dough was thought to be flour-linked (not eggs).
Andersons choice works for her, but the risk calculation changes with other populations like my kids (who
beg to lick the bowl) because dont have fully developed immune systems. A 1 in 20,000 chance is too
much for me to handle as a parent especially with the consequences. So we use pasteurized eggs in
our recipes.
http://barfblog.com/2014/03/making-risk-decisions-the-case-of-raw-eggs-in-cookie-dough/