General Mills has announced that it is recalling some parts of its Gold Medal Unbleached Flour to prevent potential chances of consumers contracting salmonella poisoning. Though no reports of sickness have emerged as yet the firm said that it is voluntarily removing all unsold five pound bags of the flour that have expiry data of 20th April 2020 due to presence of salmonella in the bags during a random sampling early this week. The product recall was mentioned by FDA head Scott Gottlieb’s twitter handle that General Mills is working with FDA to carry out the recall.
Buyers that use the flour that have packages of the product at home have been advised to look for these details on the bags. Owners of these bags should throw the product away immediately and ask the firm for a replacement coupon. These include Gold Medal unbleached all-purpose 5 LB flour, Package product code : 000-16000-19610-0 and if use by date is : 20APR2020KC.
General Mills president Jim Murphy clarified that the recall is not for its other flour products and his firm continues to educate people that flour is an ingredient for recipes and must be cooked properly before consumption and it is not a “ready to eat product”. Three years ago the company had to recall its flour products as it was found to be contaminated with E. coli that sickened several consumers. To minimize risk of contamination while making recipes out of flour it is ideal to cook it at required temperature and wash hands and utensils carefully while mixing or cooking flour. The CDC has also issued warning to people that children should not be allowed to play with it as they may eat it raw which could cause illness as it is a raw agricultural product which has not been treated for germs.
