Many of us grew up eating raw cookie dough straight from the mixing bowl. Most of us probably didn’t get sick, but people do. In 2009, people got sick in 28 states because they ate raw refrigerated Nestle Tollhouse cookie dough that was designed to be baked into cookies. The package said not to eat the dough, but people do what they do.
Why does the FDA tell us to not eat raw cookie dough like you make at home?
It’s related to the food safety risks of the ingredients, primarily raw eggs and raw flour, which can be contaminated with harmful germs. Though you bake at home with clean equipment and tools, it’s the high temperature of baking that makes the flour and eggs safe to eat.
Why is Rhino Foods’ cookie dough safe to eat?
From the beginning we know we are creating edible ready-to-eat cookie dough. Everything is determined by this fact.
- Ingredients: As there is no high temperature kill step to knock out germs, we use pasteurized eggs and heat-treated flour. In layman terms this means the germ kill step has been completed. All of our other ingredients are sourced to be consumed without additional cooking.
- Production: We make the cookie dough in a facility designed to produce ready-to-eat foods. Our 8 hour sanitation process and hygiene practices meet the highest global food safety standards. These standards are higher than a commercial bakery.
- Storage: Immediately after our cookie dough is mixed it enters a negative 90 degree freezing process and is then stored below negative 15 degrees. This helps ensure no germs can grow before it’s consumed.
- Lab testing: All our cookie doughs are tested for germs to verify quality and food safety before anything leaves our control.
We encourage you to keep making cookie dough at home, just please bake it into cookies!
