Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hi brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Vogel Bomb. Here, everyone has that one friend,
Speaker 1: you know, the kill joy who can't help attaint a
Speaker 1: perfectly pleasant conversation with an unsolicited, soul crushing truth bomb.
Speaker 1: Apologies are in order. This episode is about to be
Speaker 1: the kill joy of your podcast stream today. That's because
Speaker 1: amidst the cheer and anticipation of the holiday season, something
Speaker 1: truly disturbing has come to our attention, and it involves
Speaker 1: a wintertime staple, raw cookie dough. According to a new
Speaker 1: study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, eating
Speaker 1: raw foods made with flour a k A delicious unbaked
Speaker 1: goods like cookies could make you dangerously sick. While health
Speaker 1: experts have long known that a type of E. Coli
Speaker 1: bacteria commonly reside in wet environments like leafy vegetables and
Speaker 1: raw meat, the study confirms that the same type of
Speaker 1: bacteria can lurk in dry habitats like flower too. The
Speaker 1: study covers the details that lead to a recall of
Speaker 1: more than ten million pounds of flow hour that's about
Speaker 1: four thousand, five hundred metric tons, and of two and
Speaker 1: fifty potentially contaminated raw flower based products in A United
Speaker 1: States Food and Drug Administration investigation determined that raw dough
Speaker 1: made using General Mills flour produced on some dates between
Speaker 1: November and February was tainted. A statement from the FDA
Speaker 1: said flower has a long shelf life, and bags of
Speaker 1: flower may be kept in people's homes for a long time.
Speaker 1: Consumers unaware of the recall could continue to eat these
Speaker 1: recalled flowers and potentially get sick. If consumers have any
Speaker 1: of these recalled flowers in their homes, they should throw
Speaker 1: such flower products away. The studies authors say they're not
Speaker 1: trying to ruin people's holidays. They just don't want anyone
Speaker 1: to get sick, and consuming even a small amount of
Speaker 1: raw flower from these tainted batches could lead to a
Speaker 1: pretty unpleasant bout of illness. More than a quarter of
Speaker 1: the fifty six patients affected across twenty four states were hospitalized,
Speaker 1: and some of their symptoms included mild fever, abdominal pain,
Speaker 1: vom ng and so sorry bloody diarrhea, though all the
Speaker 1: patients raging in age from one years eventually recovered. If
Speaker 1: cautionary tales around raw cookie does sound familiar, it's probably
Speaker 1: because the consumption of raw eggs and another key ingredient
Speaker 1: has long been known to carry risks. A General Mills
Speaker 1: spokesperson encouraged consumers to continue avoiding raw batter in the
Speaker 1: future because flour can't be heat treated to prevent contamination
Speaker 1: and potential outbreaks, not without impacting its performance. The takeaway
Speaker 1: here you can still have your cookies, just spake them too.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Michelle Konstantinovsky and produced by
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. For more on this and lots of other
Speaker 1: scientific kill joys, visit our home planet, how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com.