Popular Cookie Dough Brand Linked To Salmonella Outbreak

The outbreak has affected individuals in six states so far, including Missouri.

If you were hoping to take a shortcut on your homemade cookies this week, you may want to rethink your plans and check your fridge, instead. The CDC recently announced an outbreak of salmonella linked to raw cookie dough from Papa Murphy’s, a popular take-and-bake pizza brand. The compromised flavors are Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and S’mores Bar Dough, which have been temporarily pulled from shelves.

The salmonella outbreak has affected eighteen people from six states since February, and the CDC predicts that this number is likely higher due to the time it takes to identify whether or not an individual’s case is connected to an outbreak. Though most of the cases were reported on the West Coast, there has been a related instance of salmonella in Missouri.

Health officials interviewed fourteen of the sick individuals to determine the root cause and discovered that the salmonella didn’t just affect folks who ate spoonfuls of raw dough. “Of the fourteen people interviewed,” the CDC announced, “twelve reported eating food from Papa Murphy’s. Nine people ate Papa Murphy’s raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or raw S’mores Bars Dough, and one person ate baked cookies made with Papa Murphy’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.” Two of the eighteen have been hospitalized.

The CDC recommends throwing away any Papa Murphy’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or S’mores Bar Dough you may have in your fridge or freezer as a precaution, even if the batch didn’t make you sick. Children under five, adults over sixty-five, and individuals with weakened immune systems may be at a higher risk for severe illness, and potentially hospitalization, from salmonella. The CDC also urges customers to “always follow cookie dough baking instructions in the recipe or on the package label.”

While companies have more recently introduced safe-to-eat cookie dough products with specialized ingredients, the CDC reiterates that most raw cookie dough is made with unpasteurized eggs and uncooked flour, making it unsafe to consume without baking.

As an alternative, might we recommend our five-star Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe? Just be sure to bake before digging in.

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