General Mills Recalls Some Gold Medal Flour Because Of Salmonella Fears

Minnesota-based food brand General Mills announced it is recalling some of its Gold Medal unbleached flour products due to concern over salmonella contamination Wednesday.

The recall applies to five-pound bags of flour with “better if used by” dates of April 20, 2020, General Mills said in a statement. The statement also said:

The recall is being issued for the potential presence of Salmonella which was discovered during sampling of the five-pound bag product. This recall is being issued out of an abundance of care as General Mills has not received any direct consumer reports of confirmed illnesses related to this product.

Salmonella can cause serious and even deadly infections, and it’s especially dangerous for young children and the elderly. Warning signs include symptoms like fever, nausea and diarrhea, reported CBS Boston.

Salmonella causes “about 1.2 million illnesses, 23,000 hospitalizations, and 450 deaths in the United States every year,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Food is responsible for about 1 million of these cases.

Many people think about the eggs in raw cookie dough as a salmonella risk factor, but flour can also be the culprit, the Food and Drug Administration warned in 2016.

It is unclear how many bags of flour the recall affects.

Other major brands issued big recalls in the last few months. Approximately 91,388 pounds of Jennie-O raw ground turkey were recalled days before Americans gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving.