General Mills flour recall: What to do if you have the affected product

The food inspectors at the FDA may be furloughed during the endless government shutdown, but General Mills is monitoring its food wares and found the potential presence of Salmonella during sampling of the five-pound bags.

The company is recalling the following product and issuing the following instructions: 

Five-pound bags of Gold Medal unbleached flour with a better-if-used-by date of April 20, 2020.
Consumers who have the affected product should dispose of it.
Once you do that, you can get a replacement coupon by calling the company’s customer service team at 1-800-230-8103 or by filling out this online form.

While General Mills claims it has not “received any direct consumer reports of confirmed illnesses related to this product,” it is recalling the flour anyway out of concern for giving people salmonella while they whip up their gluten-y goods or, apparently, eat the product raw, an activity so frequent that General Mills had to gently remind its consumers that “flour is not a ‘ready to eat’ ingredient.”

Salmonella is killed by heat, so it’s not usually a huge cause for alarm for those of us who bake, fry, or sauté with flour. However, if you have been shoveling handfuls of dry flour into your mouth or snorting lines off it off the counter, maybe don’t?

As you may recall from the last few dozen FDA recalls, salmonella causes serious and sometimes fatal infections, especially in young children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems.