Widespread salmonella outbreak linked to raw flour; nationwide Gold Medal recall [23-05-02]

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Looks like the initial CDC report was on 30 March:

Now General Mills has identified salmonella in a bag of Gold Medal and issued a recall:

Details on the General Mills flour recall

General Mills’ voluntary recall includes the following products – currently in stores or consumers’ homes – with “Better If Used By Dates” of “27MAR2024” and “28MAR2024,” and these specific UPC codes:

  • Gold Medal Unbleached All Purpose 5LB Flour: Package UPC 000-16000-19610
  • Gold Medal Unbleached All Purpose 10LB Flour: Package UPC 000-16000-19580
  • Gold Medal Bleached All Purpose 2LB Flour: Package UPC 000-16000-10710
  • Gold Medal Bleached All Purpose 5LB Flour: Package UPC 000-16000-10610
2

Didn’t we have one of these a couple of years ago?

3

You might be thinking of peanut butter.

4

We just made bread yesterday and today. (Dough last night, baked this AM.)

Our flour tub ran out so I refilled it with a “new” bag. Just checked: It has a “gold medal” on the front but is a store brand. Whew.

5

I got an automated phone call from Fred Meyer about this, which is a first for me. I use their grocery pickup so I assume that’s why they called me. However, we use Bob’s Red Mill so no problem with possible contamination AFAIK.

6

Woohoo! We won! 5lb Gold Medal Unbleached with that UPC code (unopened). I probably bought it two or three weeks ago in Southern California. Another day and I would have used half of it.

7

Nope, flour

despite the date that shows on the one-box, if you click through, you can see the recall was issued September 16, 2019.

General Mills announced today a voluntary national recall of five-pound bags of its Gold Medal Unbleached All Purpose Flour with a better if used by date of September 6, 2020. The recall is being issued for the potential presence of E. coli O26 which was discovered during sampling of the five-pound bag product. This recall is being issued out of an abundance of care as General Mills has not received any direct consumer reports of confirmed illnesses related to this product.

Also

which I think was actually the same product. General Mills makes several brands of flour. Although… I see the date is different. So I guess not.

8

And here are a lot more flour recalls

None of these recalls is active – I’m posting for interest, not because you should click on the link to check if your flour is safe.

9

I saw that and then thought about how often we eat raw flour.

Never.

So I looked at the CDC webpage and figured that it was safe enough for us.

Don’t eat raw cookie dough folks…times have changed and licking the beaters is no longer a thing, which is a real shame.

10

I don’t think flour is any more dangerous than it used to be. I think it’s just that standards have changed.

11

I agree that flour is not more dangerous nowadays. I was thinking about the raw eggs that are less dangerous than they were 20 years ago, but not nearly as safe as they were 60 years ago.

12

Yeah, that sounds right, about the eggs.

I eat undercooked eggs all the time, though. I don’t think eggs with runny yolks have been cooked hot enough to kill bacteria.

13

Eggs back when I was a kid were not the factory eggs folks get nowadays…and I’m not going to go total hijack about that, so will agree with you about raw eggs potentially having bacteria best not consumed raw.

14

Ehh, if you eat raw wheat flour in any form, you’re paying your nickel and taking your chances. After all, there’s a bunch of bacteria and yeast in any raw wheat flour. Throwing raw eggs into the mix just adds pizazz (no, I don’t advise it).

15

I don’t understand, why are they worried about people consuming raw flour?

“Don’t do that” should suffice.

I’ve noticed the “Do Not Eat Frozen Pizza” admonishment on DiGiornos, a helpful if necessary reminder for anybody unclear on these basic skills.

16

What’s worse, salmonella in the flour, or a zombie fungus?

17

Have you never eaten raw cookie dough? Did your mother never make play dough for you when your were a child? Did you not taste it?

Honestly, “don’t do that” is rarely helpful when “that” is something people enjoy and there isn’t a good alternative offered.

I think “zero risk” is not a realistic goal for food poisoning, and the FDA should focus on reducing the amount of contaminated food in the supply chain, and warning consumers of areas of greater risk. For instance, babies are a higher risk from food poisoning and also are not the target audience for play dough. So “this is risky for everyone, but make sure not to leave playdough where your baby can touch it, and discourage your older child from eating it” seems like the right approach.

And that’s kinda where the FDA advice goes. It discusses who is at the most risk, and points out that there are commercially available "cookie dough"s that are safe to eat raw. Personally, i plan to continue tasting the home made cookie dough.

18

I’d never think of salmonella residing in dry goods. I’d assume it would need moisture. Apparently not!

19

When the American public is simultaneously utterly stupid/ignorant and extremely risk averse we’re going to get conundrums like this.

20

You takes your changes. Well, I do. As is said, nothing is ever completely without risk. We do need to, of course, try to lessen that risk, particularly at the producer level. Consumers will make their own choices, and sometimes those will turn out to have bad consequences, just as sometimes someone takes an unnecessary drive and ends up in a car accident. Even when the odds are very low of something bad happening (like a particular egg or bag of flour being infected), sometimes bad things happen.