Toll House Cookie Recall Q&A

Not surprisingly, a lot of people have questions about the current Nestlé Toll House Cookie Dough recall.

One of the most common is about the dates of packages of Toll House Cookie Dough involved in the recall. Although the FDA didn't include any package dates, they were pretty clear in stating that 'if consumers have any prepackaged, refrigerated Nestlé Toll House cookie dough products in their home that they throw them away.' So whether you bought your Nestlé cookie dough yesterday or last month, you should likely consider it to be contaminated and either return it to your grocery store for a recall or through it away.

Can you just cook the raw dough and eat it? Although Nestlé and the FDA both warn of the dangers of eating raw cookie dough, that doesn't mean that it is safe to simply bake your cookie dough and eat the cookies. They warn that 'cooking the dough is not recommended because consumers might get the bacteria on their hands and on other cooking surfaces.'

How soon after eating contaminated cookie dough can you get sick with E. coli symptoms? It can be anywhere from 2 to 8 days (incubation period), but is usually about 3 to 4 days after eating a food that is contaminated with the E. coli bacteria.

The last question that seems to be coming up a lot is about related products, like cookie dough ice cream. Fortunately, a Nestlé press release states that 'No other Nestlé TOLL HOUSE products are impacted, including already baked TOLL HOUSE cookies purchased outside the home, all varieties of Nestlé TOLL HOUSE morsels, chocolate baking bars, or cocoa, and Dreyer's and Edy's ice cream products with Nestlé TOLL HOUSE cookie dough ingredients.'

Related:
FDA: Toll House Cookie Dough Recall Alert
CDC: E. coli Outbreak Information