Celebrate Bake for Family Fun Month with Flour Food Safety

February is Bake for Family Fun Month. From toddler to grandparent – baking is the perfect family activity. Just don’t forget to include food safety in your recipe!

Flour is a raw ingredient made from wheat grown and harvested in nature, and as such, it is possible for wheat to be exposed to environmental sources of naturally occurring pathogens. Processing raw grains into flour does not kill harmful bacteria. Cooking is the only way to be sure that foods made with flour are safe.

Commercial food facilities use heat-treated flour to make edible cookie dough. However, heat-treated flour is largely unavailable at grocery stores.             

There’s a common misconception that microwaving flour makes it safe to eat uncooked, but microwave heating can be uneven, especially if the food has many parts and surfaces like flour. Food and cookware taken out of a microwave are rarely much hotter than 100 °C (212 °F), which is sometimes not enough to kill all bacteria.                 

“Microwaves are an inconsistent way to heat food products. The low moisture in flour magnifies these inconsistencies and makes it difficult to reliably kill pathogenic microorganisms,” said Dr. Gordon Smith of Kansas State University’s Grain Science & Industry Department.        

Sweeten your baking during Bake for Family Fun Month with flour food safety. Follow FDA guidance and never eat or taste raw flour, dough, or batter.   

Learn more about flour food safety:

• FDA: Handling Flour Safely
• CDC: Say No to Raw Dough
• Purdue University: Home Kitchen Heat-Treated Flour Doesn’t Protect Against Foodborne Illnesses
• Partnership for Food Safety Education: Sweeten Your Baking with Food Safety
• Home Baking Association: Bake for Family Fun Resources