Resist the urge to eat raw cookie dough.

While most concerns are over raw eggs in the mixture the real danger may lie in the flour.

Flour doesn’t go through the kind of special processing to kill off pathogens that ingredients like pasteurized eggs, molasses, sugar, baking soda, and margarine do.

When the researchers visited manufacturing plants where the cookie batter was being made their suspicions were confirmed: they found E coli in the samples they collected at the plants, according to the report which was published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The higher incidence of baking during the holiday season can increase the risk of contamination.

Use safe cooking, preparation and clean-up methods for healthy celebrations.