You can also heat up your flour in the oven before you bake with it, so the flour on your counters will be safe, too.

It was only the Unbleached AP in five pound bags with a use by date of 9-6-20. As Sleevendog said, 160º F will kill all e. coli, which is the reported potential contaminant.

Safe to eat the muffins, no matter what.

If your flour was exactly what was recalled, if you were making "Six Weeks Muffins" with the batter holding in the fridge for weeks, it might be wise to throw the rest of the batter out, rather than potentially having the bacteria grow.

So if we have put flour in our canister and don't know what brand, if unbleached or what the expiration date was, can we just bake @160 for one minute and be safe?

Can't get the edit to work. Just curious: for those of you who dump your flour and other foods, do you keep all that info?

liabeth, I put my flour and dry goods into air tight canisters and I do not keep the packages, so if anything I have is the subject of recall, I'm going to just take my chances.

As has been mentioned, though, in this instance it's not the muffins that are a problem, it's the people like my daughter Ashley, who insists on eating chunks of raw cookie dough or licking the beaters when I bake a cake who are at the most risk.

Annie

Here are a number of articles about how to kill bacteria in flour so it's safe to use, even before baking your goodies:

How to kill bacteria in flour

Thanks for the replies and info. I baked the muffins several days ago, and we both each ate one with no ill effects. So I guess we'll be OK with the remaining muffins. They're frozen and will be heated in the microwave.

I threw out the remaining flour this afternoon and washed the container really well. I'll start again with a fresh batch of flour and give it a whirl in the microwave before storing in its container.

Again, thanks for the info.

Sue

would this be flour mfg'd and sold in the past 6 months or so? I'm sure mine is at least that old.

I’m guessing fairly recent - I just bought today and date is October 22, 2020.

If flour is contaminated with e-coli....enough to warn about....what happens whe you proof years? Does the ecoli bacteria grow and fight with the yeast? Frankly I am not concerned....I usually taste my bread dough to be sure I haven't forgotten salt....or haven't put salt in twice....but the possibility of Gold Medal flour possibly being contaminated with bacteria affects me not at all....I don't use that brand any way.

My new sack in the freezer for a few weeks is dated September of 2021. I would guess the recalled flour has all been sold by now.

Oh Linda that’s why I posted the picture; it says “cook before sneaking a taste”! But I guess you’ve made it this long! ;)

I was thinking about all the opportunity for cross-contamination as I scooped a cup for Spaetzle last night. Nope, not going to treat it like chicken. I’ve got enough hang-ups in the kitchen already! And what’s the point of baking cookies if you don’t get to lick the bowl.

Shielajoyce - I guess my store sold me old (relatively) flour. I’ll pay closer attention next time, esp as I use so little of it.

This is
not the first warning/recall about ecoli in flour, and it certainly
won't be the last. It's not limited to certain brands to be
contaminated.

I think, after learning of the risks, it's prudent to avoid eating raw flour. It's
a nasty bacteria to ingest and lot worth the risk, imo. I don't trust
our food producers or gov't inspectors well enough to risk it. And I'm
no germaphobe by any means.

Lizbeth, I store my flour in plastic containers and include the package information that I’ve snipped from the bag. If I didn’t do that, I think I’d take my chances. I don’t usually eat raw flour and baking it seems sufficient enough to kill whatever might be lurking.

It's important to note that this is a voluntary recall triggered by sampling. There are no reports of illness. The source of the e.coli might have been the paper of the wrapper, the hands that handled it, etc. Impossible to know, and it may well be that the flour itself wasn't affected. Or it could have been on a handful of grain that got into one palette full, rather than the whole run. GM are being a good corporation by being cautious and issuing the warning and recall. We want that level of caution, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to taste the batter to adjust the flavor.

I'm that way with eggs too. 1 in 20,000 eggs has salmonella, and the ones I usually buy have a lower risk than that. I'm kind of obsessive about preventing cross contamination, especially from eggs and chicken, because I don't want to risk not knowing that there's something nasty lurking. OTOH, knowing that there could be something lurking in the raw batter doesn't phaze me. Because I know the potential is there and can make an informed decision. I won't let kids lick the spoon without their parents' consent, however. In other words, balance reasonable caution with real life. :)