Let’s be honest: eating raw cookie dough is as dangerous for your health as it is delicious. People have been drawn to cookie dough as long as cookie dough has existed, but the risk of salmonella poisoning or other food-based illnesses has been too great of a risk. Just when we thought there was finally a miracle breakthrough that would allow us to eat this delicious nectar from the Gods, now there’s a lawsuit on the books that might reveal that we haven’t made as much progress as we would have liked.
Cookie Do, an edible cookie dough confectioner that opened earlier this year in New York City in the trendy Greenwich Village neighborhood claimed that they had finally found a way to serve raw cookie dough in all its glory, but that it couldn’t make you sick. They used pasteurized eggs and heat-treated flour to cut down on any possible food-borne illness. The one-stop shop for cookie dough was an almost overnight success, thanks in part to its infinitely Instagrammable fare.
That’s what drew plaintiffs Julia Canigiani and Katherine Byrne to visit the shop. They ordered an ice cream sandwich and cookie dough ice cream, excited to try the edible cookie dough. About 15 minutes after Canigiani ate her treat, she began experiencing stomach pain and nausea, which later developed into diarrhea. Byrne also experienced stomach pain and nausea, but she also suffered from heartburn. In their lawsuit, filed in Manhattan court, they claim that Cookie Do violated New York general business law, committed fraudulent concealment, negligent misrepresentation, and unjust enrichment.
The plaintiffs say they also found eight Yelp reviews in which people have claimed to have been made sick by what they ordered at Do. There’s no word on whether the Yelp reviews mentioned were verified, but if they prove to be true, it might be proof that this “edible” cookie dough isn’t all that edible after all. That’s probably the most depressing news of 2017 so far.
