General Mills Recalls 10 Million Pounds of Flour in 20 States Over E. Coli Scare

[TomSea]

General Mills Recalls 10 Million Pounds of Flour in 20 States Over E. Coli Scare

 General Mills said Tuesday it was recalling 10 million pounds of flour because of suspicions the product might be contaminated with a dangerous strain of E. coli bacteria.

It's a huge recall of a item not normally linked with outbreaks of foodborne illness, but state and federal health officials say flour seems to be the common link among 38 illnesses in 20 states.
General Mills is recalling 10 million pounds of flour for fear it might carry dangerous E. coli bacteria

"General Mills is collaborating with health officials to investigate an ongoing, multistate outbreak of E. coli 0121 that may be potentially linked to Gold Medal flour, Wondra flour, and Signature Kitchens flour (sold in Safeway, Albertsons, Jewel, Shaws, Vons, United, Randalls, and Acme)," the company said in a statement.

Read More At: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/general-mills-recalls-10-million-pounds-flour-20-states-over-n583551

[Henry Noel]

Flour generally gets cooked before eating. At least I don't know of any instances where it's eaten uncooked.

[TomSea]

This is a bit unrelated but has to do with flour, back in the late 1800s or early 1900s, there was a real bad fire at a flour mill, it caused at least one fatality.  That is before the way they probably make it now in a more controlled environment, the air was filled with flour powder like dust, it caught on fire and was highly combustible. It burnt the mill down.

[Free Vulcan]

This is a bit unrelated but has to do with flour, back in the late 1800s or early 1900s, there was a real bad fire at a flour mill, it caused at least one fatality.  That is before the way they probably make it now in a more controlled environment, the air was filled with flour powder like dust, it caught on fire and was highly combustible. It burnt the mill down.

Not so common now due to procedure and safety upgrades, but you used to hear of grain elevator explosions here in the Midwest from time to time. We had one locally that blew a huge chunk of the top of one of the towers...they found it over a quarter a mile away.

Grain dust is highly explosive, most people not in or around the industry don't realize just how much.