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Licking the spoon is part of baking with children, and most of us grew up doing it. The official advice is clear that it carries a real risk, and the part most people do not know about is the flour, not the eggs.
Flour is a raw food
This is the surprise. The US Food and Drug Administration explains in its guidance on handling flour that the grains flour is made from are grown outdoors and can pick up harmful bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli, and that processing grain into flour does not kill them.
The CDC puts it plainly in its advice on raw dough: most flour is raw. Grinding grain and bleaching flour do not kill germs; they are killed only when the flour is baked or cooked.
The FDA’s advice is to never eat or taste raw flour, dough or batter, and not to let children eat or play with raw dough, including using it for crafts or as play clay.
It does happen
The FDA notes several outbreaks since 2009 involving raw flour or products containing it, such as cake mixes and cookie dough. In 2023, the CDC investigated an outbreak linked to raw cookie dough in which 26 people in six states became ill, four of them seriously enough to go to hospital.
Then there are the eggs, and here the UK and US differ
- UK: the Food Standards Agency now says young children, people who are pregnant and older people can safely eat raw or lightly cooked hen eggs if they carry the British Lion mark or come from the Laid in Britain scheme (FSA fact checker). The NHS says babies can have red-lion eggs raw or lightly cooked from around six months, but that other eggs should be cooked until both white and yolk are solid (NHS).
- US and elsewhere: raw eggs may carry harmful bacteria, and the FDA treats them as a risk in raw dough and batter.
The important point: even with British Lion eggs, raw dough still contains raw flour. The egg rule does not make licking the bowl safe.
Baking together, safely
- Let children do the measuring, stirring, cracking and shaping. That is the fun part anyway.
- Wash hands, bowls, utensils and worktops after handling raw flour, eggs or dough, as the CDC advises.
- Offer a reward that is actually baked: the first warm cookie off the tray, or a cupcake to decorate.
- Shop-bought dough sold as edible is made to be eaten unbaked; check the label says it is ready to eat. Ordinary cookie dough and cake mix are not.
