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Lesson Learned From Flour Recall: Don’t Eat Raw Dough

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The recall of around 45 million pounds of General Mills flour due to E. coli has raised red flags in baking, and the US Food and Drug Administration has warned regarding raw cookie dough and cake batter: don’t eat it.

Authorities found two different E. coli bacteria strains in the flour samples that produce a toxin. In the past, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had investigated multiple outbreaks of these E. coli strains in sources such as sprouts, but this is the first time they have appeared in raw flour, Fox News reports.

The contaminated flour has made 46 people across 21 states fall ill, and FDA investigation has found that the batch responsible was produced between November 2015 and February 2016 at the General Mills factory in Kansas City, Missouri.

The people who fell sick had eaten or handled raw dough made from the recalled flour.

The most number of cases has been reported in Minnesota, followed by Colorado, Illinois and Michigan. These particular E. coli strains can cause symptoms such as abdominal cramps and diarrhea. While most people recover within a week, the bacteria can cause more severe conditions such as kidney failure. Thirteen people who have ingested the E. coli are in the hospital, and one had kidney failure, according to the CDC.

FDA and CDC officials are currently unsure of how the E. coli got into the General Mills flour, but are looking into it.

E. coli lives in animal intestines and is commonly spread through contamination from animal feces. Flour is produced from milled wheat that is grown in open fields, and is considered a raw agricultural product that has no process to kill contaminants before being sold to consumers. As a result, there is a big chance of contamination between the wheat field and packaging.

Batches of unbleached, all-purpose and self-rising flours from General Mills, Wondra, Gold Medal and Signature Kitchens were included in the recall, along with several cake mixes, a biscuit mix and a pancake mix using General Mills flour.

General Mills said in an email to The Associated Press that it does not believe the Kansas City facility is the source of the bacteria, but that the company has “elevated cleaning protocols” as a precaution. “Only a small sub-set of flour produced at the Kansas City plant has been traced back to individuals who have become ill. To date, E. coli has not been found in testing of the manufacturing facility,” the company said.

 

 

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