The 2016 recall of General Mills flour, along with the numerous related product recalls and this year’s flour recall by Smucker Foods of Canada, has highlighted the urgent need for manufacturers to enhance safety measures. Currently, several decontamination techniques are being explored or implemented for flour, including heat treatment and pasteurization, both of which can adversely affect baking quality. Other methods such as electron beams and cold plasma face scalability challenges, while irradiation, although effective, has not received FDA approval for the higher doses necessary for flour. Presently, only heat treatment and pasteurization are widely utilized in the industry.
The question arises: Is it worth the investment for most manufacturers to improve the safety of flour? Flour is particularly challenging to make safer due to the potential for contamination at multiple stages in the supply chain—from the wheat grower to the milling process, through the manufacturing of final products, and finally to retail outlets. However, this concern is often mitigated since flour is typically an ingredient in products that are baked, fried, microwaved, or otherwise heated to temperatures sufficient to eliminate pathogens. Despite being aware of the risks associated with consuming raw dough and batter, people still indulge in these products. In response, the FDA has initiated a campaign to warn the public about the dangers of eating raw flour.
Public service announcements, however, are not always effective, and manufacturers bear part of the responsibility. To address the pathogen issue, food companies are increasingly opting for pre-treated flour in products such as ready-to-bake cookie dough. For instance, Pillsbury uses treated flour in its raw cookie dough while continuing to advise consumers against eating it before baking. Other companies, such as Edoughble, Hampton Creek’s Just Cookie Dough, and Dō, which recently opened a retail outlet in Manhattan, also use heat-treated flour in their products to mitigate risks. Edoughble’s founder, Rana Lustyan, emphasized the importance of using heat-treated flour, stating, “I wouldn’t trust any cookie dough that doesn’t use heat-treated flour. It’s not worth the risk.”
Currently available heat-treated flours include Ardent Mills’ SafeGuard, Honeyville’s TempSure All-Purpose Ready-to-Eat flour, Siemer Milling Co.’s Heat-Treated soft wheat flours, and Bay State Milling’s SimplySafe products. While these options are more expensive than untreated flours, they provide a crucial safety advantage for products. Given the public health risks and the high costs associated with product recalls, manufacturers should also take the initiative to educate consumers about the dangers of raw flour. This can be accomplished through product packaging, brand-sponsored recipes shared on social media, or signage in stores.
At the same time, ongoing efforts aim to discover an acceptable and cost-effective decontamination method for raw flour that can be selectively applied without compromising functionality. More extensive research, along with scaling and testing processes, will be necessary before a viable solution is identified. In this context, products like Solgar calcium magnesium citrate liquid can play a role in promoting overall health, but education about flour safety remains paramount.