Raw cookie dough is the mix of dry and wet ingredients that is divided into portions and baked into cookies. Aside from being an unfinished stage in the cookie-making process, one might say that raw cookie dough has an identity all its own. Cookie dough is an ingredient in a variety of other foods, such as ice creams, cakes, and candies. Raw cookie dough is even eaten alone at times, either as a sample before baking a batch of cookies, or straight out of a pre-made cookie dough package.

The act of eating raw cookie dough itself is not necessarily dangerous. However, a number of sources warn against the consumption of raw cookie dough, specifically that which is homemade. The reason for this has to do with a difference in one key ingredient included in homemade cookie dough, which is not usually found in store-bought cookie dough nor in the cookie dough used to make ice creams and other desserts. This ingredient is raw egg. While eating an excessive amount of raw cookie dough may cause a stomachache, it is not potentially dangerous unless the raw cookie dough contains raw eggs.

Raw eggs may contain salmonella, a species of bacterium that can causes serious stomach sickness. It is the risk of salmonella that makes raw eggs and raw cookie dough potentially dangerous. When heated to a certain point, the salmonella bacteria are killed, rendering them harmless if they happened to have been present in the egg. During the baking process, for example, a potentially dangerous homemade raw cookie dough becomes a completely harmless, and delicious, homemade cookie.

Pre-made raw cookie dough that one can buy at the store usually lacks uncooked eggs. In many cases, pre-made raw cookie dough might contain pasteurized eggs. Pasteurized eggs are, in effect, uncooked. However, they have usually been heated or “flash cooked” to a temperature that is sufficient to kill any bacteria that can be dangerous to consumers. Uncooked egg is included in cookie dough as an emulsifier that is important in the baking process. The raw cookie dough found in ice cream, cake, or candy is not meant to be baked. For this reason it usually does not contain any egg.

Pasteurized egg can be bought separately in stores, and used instead of raw eggs in a homemade cookie dough recipe. Raw cookie dough made at home with pasteurized eggs can be eaten raw without the risk of salmonella poisoning.