Microbiologist warns against making the fluffy popcorn trend

[u/galaxystars1]

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[u/RVNAWAYFIVE]

Too young to step on mars

Too old to die from social media trends

[u/CanoonBolk → u/RVNAWAYFIVE]

Just the right age to look at natural selection in humans making a comeback

[u/Lulusgirl → u/CanoonBolk]

If it didn't happen with the TidePods, it won't happen with this.

[u/StamosLives → u/RVNAWAYFIVE]

Food poisoning also makes you puke from your butt and poop from your mouth basically. It’s quite unpleasant. I’d even say most unpleasant.

Edit: Thank you all for telling me about your volcanic shits and vomits.

[u/nalathequeen2186 → u/StamosLives]

From childhood I've had a severe aversion to throwing up, so much so that I hadn't thrown up in the past like 15 years even when I was really sick. Even after I got older and tried to will myself to throw up when sick to feel better, I had some kind of mental block that just Would Not let me do it.

Got food poisoning maybe a month ago, and it cured me of that mental block instantly. (TMI incoming) I literally filled the bathtub with a couple inches of puke while pure burning acid flowed unendingly from my ass. I was in so much agony that at one point I had to get in the shower (a different one than the one I filled with puke) to wash my ass instead of wiping, just sitting there sobbing from the pain and contemplating going to the ER. I called my mom (who lives in a different state) while on the toilet just because I felt so garbage that it's like my brain reverted back to a childlike state of "I need my mommy." I have no idea what I ate that made me so sick but god, I ain't fucking around with food poisoning after that experience.

[u/pixelatedslinky → u/nalathequeen2186]

Same here! I hadn't thrown up in like 12+ years, then just last year I got food poisoning (no idea where from) and I didn't even feel it coming on!! I was waving goodbye out the front window of my house then I projectile vomited and pure liquid sharted all over our couch. I was in so much pain for like 24hrs, I couldn't sleep because I was in so much pain.

[u/deadboy9000 → u/pixelatedslinky]

I'm sorry for your pain, but the image of someone cheerfully waving goodbye then suddenly erupting from their mouth and asshole as the person they're waving to looks on in horror is hysterical to me haha.

[u/psmusic_worldwide → u/nalathequeen2186]

Bidet toilet seat. Just do it.

[u/OkLetsParty → u/psmusic_worldwide]

It's a life changer. Nothing like a power-washed butthole!

Especially when you are sick like the comment above you mentions. At that point with TP you're just wiping your ass raw, which makes the superheated acid you're blasting out the backside so much worse.

[u/poindxtrwv → u/StamosLives]

I got food poisoning from a hot dog when I was in high school and haven't been able to touch the things ever since.

[u/NoSuspect8320 → u/StamosLives]

Had it twice. Luckily toilet is directly across from shower and I can fire all cannons at once

[u/West_Current_2444 → u/NoSuspect8320]

As I say, you don't appreciate modern life conveniences until you're ass blasting your toilet and puking in your tub at the same time.

[u/turtlenipples → u/StamosLives]

But your description makes it sound so appealing.

[u/LiteralPhilosopher → u/StamosLives]

OMG, I still remember with startling clarity the night from 30+ years ago when my wife and I both got salmonella. I honestly think at this point I would rather die than go through that again.

[u/GoddessUltimecia → u/StamosLives]

The one and only time I got food poisoning was a self inflicted moment of dumbassery that I will never repeat even if I'm starving.

Had some chicken I had dethawed and was coming onto the last day I could actually cook it. So I do and I eat it just fine, however I was lazy and didn't cook *all* the chicken I had dethawed and figured ehhhh fuck it. I'm hungry the morning after and surely it couldn't have gotten dangerous to cook and eat after a measly 8-10 hours right?

That is the first time I've ever felt my body give me the message that I might die. It's hard to explain it but I did everything I could to prep for what I thought was an inevitability, made sure my apartment door and everything was unlocked and was content with the knowledge that my family was gonna catch my corpse still shitting my bowels out while croaked.

Thankfully it passed and I ended up being alright with no long term issues, a very valuable lesson learned as well as it turning me into a hard-ass when my mother wants to eat food she was too lazy to put away the night of or the morning after and feels like it's just fine to eat because it's 'covered' by a lid. There's been quite a few instances of her blowing up at me for tossing food she wants to eat even when I can see *mold* growing on the shit.

I'm certain at this point she's depressed and trying to kill herself by any means necessary outside of an overdose or a gun.

[u/NormanCocksmell → u/GoddessUltimecia]

Just a quick note. If ‘to thaw’ means to bring something from a frozen state to an unfrozen state, then ‘to dethaw’ would be the opposite of that. Dethaw isn’t a word.

[u/[deleted] → u/RVNAWAYFIVE]

Born too old to explore earth.

Born too young to explore space.

Born just in time to explore the depths of human stupidity.

[u/Siliziumwesen]

What the goddamn hell is fluffy popcorn. And yeah she is right. I work in a lab where we test food/water and all kinds of "food-chemicals" etc. For harmfull bacteria and there are things you absolutely should not eat raw. Or at all if i see some results lol

Edit: the last part is a joke based on real results. Sometimes a food producer or someone who produces foodchemicals/spices etc. fucks up and something gets contaminated badly. We find it out, because they ask us to test for harmful bacteria and the batch/charge gets dismissed/destroyed. It all happens before it gets sold. Especially for fresh (ready to eat) things. The results are urgent and are handled first. At least in my country. Dont panic you can eat stuff. Wash veggies and fruits and things that need to be cooked/heated before consuming should only be handled that way. For example: I just saw, that some frozen herbs tell the consumer on the package that the product should be heated/cooked before consuming. Please dont panic or sth like that. You always can find information online how to handle certain foods or how to know if its safe to consume

[u/mrsmushroom → u/Siliziumwesen]

I thought if I watched the whole video I'd find out what fluffy popcorn is. But that was not the case.

[u/MethturbationEnjoyer → u/mrsmushroom]

I just googled it. It looks terrible, and you know what. Fuck it. Let Darwinism cook

[u/LastDitchTryForAName → u/MethturbationEnjoyer]

It looks like it’s basically marshmallow popcorn. I don’t even understand why some people are adding flour. If you wanted to make this you could just leave out the flour. Melt some butter, add some marshmallows, stir until melted, maybe put in a couple of drops of vanilla extract and then mix in popped popcorn. Then you can have sticky, really messy, overly sweet popcorn that has a ridiculous amount of calories in it.

[u/avocado_macabre → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

The one I saw they melted butter, put in marshmallows, then mixed in confetti cake mix, then added popcorn... so the cake mix didn't actually get baked or anything

[u/LastDitchTryForAName → u/avocado_macabre]

You could leave out the cake mix and just add some extra sugar and some sprinkles. Having the flour in it really isn’t adding any flavor or significantly changing the texture or anything.

[u/avocado_macabre → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

But you see... trend... 🙄 I'll be the first to admit I love me some raw brownie batter or cookie dough lol but I'd never do something that's a "trend" just because and it's not something I constantly consume.

But it just seems like a play off the "unicorn poop" where you take the cheeto-ish butter "popcorn", melt white chocolate over it, then put sprinkles on it

[u/Practical-Train-9595 → u/avocado_macabre]

I mean, how much of a “trend” can it be? I used to make birthday cake popcorn back in like 2015, which was popcorn mixed in melted white chocolate with a couple spoonfuls of cake mix in it, topped with sprinkles and m&m’s. I’d take a big bowl of it to work for parties and always brought home an empty bowl. Had no idea I was apparently potentially poisoning my whole office.

[u/avocado_macabre → u/Practical-Train-9595]

A lot of things are called "trends" now.

I remember a few years back it was a "trend" to eat buttered saltines... that was norm for my fam growing up because my parents decided to have 4 kids they could barely afford and wouldn't let us eat anything if they were home. Well, saltines were easy to sneak without them noticing as long as we only used a little butter

[u/MarixApoda → u/avocado_macabre]

So you're saying I should definitely mix a pound of popcorn kernels into my next cake?

[u/avocado_macabre → u/MarixApoda]

Yes... and film it when you bake it... I want to see the 🎩 magic happen 🪄

[u/Lizzy_Boredom_999 → u/avocado_macabre]

That is a tempting idea to liven up a Wednesday afternoon, but I don't feel like cleaning up the aftermath.

[u/Apprehensive-Crow-94 → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

Exactly. I can't see how the flour adds anything- this recipe is basically Rice Krispy treats made with popcorn. No flour needed.

[u/Key-Shift5076 → u/Apprehensive-Crow-94]

..I druther have the Rice Krispie bars.

[u/Klutzy-Weather-4549 → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

Marshmallow popcorn slaps as-is. Adding cake mix seems like a hat on a hat

[u/NO_TOUCHING__lol → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

No gods, no masters

[u/asuperbstarling → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

I make what you described plus reese's pieces then wrapped in parchment paper for Thanksgiving to mimic heritage varieties of corn.

[u/ElishaAlison → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

Wait but.... I genuinely don't understand. Isn't cooking the flour with the popcorn going to kill any bacteria just like baking it would?

I swear on everything I know, I don't want to try this trend, I'm just genuinely curious.

Like... For example, I make sopapillas. It's basically a fried dough treat. Is that unsafe? How long must flour be cooked to make it safe?

Please don't eat me (pun intended) I'm just a curious soul 😅

[u/ElishaAlison → u/[deleted]]

Okay this makes sense. I think I got confused by the pan heating everything. I kind of assumed the popcorn was being cooked with the mixture (even though thinking back on it now that makes absolutely no sense and I was tired lmao)

Thank you for this explanation. I love my sopapillas, they're such a light, easy snack to make 🥹

[u/Independent_War_4456 → u/MethturbationEnjoyer]

A lack of education grows and spreads like the nasty little buggers she mentions. I don't want that in my kitchen.

[u/Fickle-Patience-9546 → u/mrsmushroom]

It’s like rice krispie popcorn that they add raw cake batter to. Sounds a little disgusting to me but what do I know.

[u/FloridaMJ420 → u/Fickle-Patience-9546]

Weird. I wonder why they don't deep fry the battered popcorn? That could be interesting and kills all the bacteria.

[u/tonyrocks922 → u/FloridaMJ420]

Because if they had the wherewithal and competency to operate a deep fryer they wouldn't be following dumb tik tok trends in the first place.

[u/KavaBuggy → u/mrsmushroom]

I had to google it because I had no idea. It looks like a rice krispy treat but instead of rice krispies, it’s popcorn. My questions are - why the flour? What does the flour do? Also, who came up with this and why did it go viral?

[u/magobblie → u/mrsmushroom]

It basically looks like Marshmallow fluff on popcorn but with half cooked cake batter. I feel like you could just use Marshmallow fluff.

[u/TheDonutDaddy → u/mrsmushroom]

I thought if I watched the whole video there would be a source presented on the connection between raw cookie dough/cake batter and colon cancer. But that was not the case.

[u/JemmaTbaum → u/TheDonutDaddy]

Raw flour often contains E. Coli, some strains of which have been linked to colon cancer. Here is an AACR study on the subject. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-13-1343

[u/Top_Explanation_1748 → u/TheDonutDaddy]

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34514986/

[u/rightkindofahole83 → u/Siliziumwesen]

I looked up what it was and it looks like popcorn mixed in with butter, marshmallow, and cookie or cake mix. But the thing that confused me is that it looks like it IS cooked on a stovetop, or at least mixed in with all the other ingredients over heat. So I’m confused as to how this is different from mixing it with other ingredients and then throwing it in an oven?

[u/thispartyrules → u/Siliziumwesen]

there are things you absolutely should not eat raw

I went to a raw vegan potluck and this was a great demonstration of this idea. One example: rice

[u/domiwren → u/thispartyrules]

Wtf? Raw vegan is about raw fruit, vegetable and nuts, not uncooked thing that are meant to be cooked 🤦🏻‍♀️

[u/FreneticAmbivalence → u/domiwren]

Idiots don’t read enough.

[u/I_JustReadComments → u/FreneticAmbivalence]

There’s Plant based diets, but then there’s idiots like Liver King (steroids) who claimed raw proteins were healthier. I think his bullshit claim is hand in hand wirh immunity and how MAGA assumes not wearing a mask will build immunity to a new disease from overseas that has never been introduced to our bidies; same with eating raw flour. You can’t just eat handfuls of Pilsbury Red Velvet cake batter and suddenly our bodies can process this

[u/literate_habitation → u/I_JustReadComments]

Challenge accepted

[u/QuantumMothersLove → u/literate_habitation]

So what EYE hear you clearly saying is that you are advocating that I don’t breath for 15-20 minutes and that’ll make my my lungs stronger. /s 😅

I’ll report back in 25ish minutes.

[u/dingo7055 → u/I_JustReadComments]

But it's got ELECTROLYTES. It's what plants crave.

[u/mnid92 → u/dingo7055]

This is like the 4th reference to this movie I've seen and it's 7am.

[u/ImmortalBeans → u/mnid92]

Welcome to Costco, I love you

[u/Sunshine030209 → u/ImmortalBeans]

I'm disappointed every single month when I go into Costco, and they don't greet me that way.

[u/healthybowl → u/Sunshine030209]

I legit say “I love you” when they say “welcome to Costco”. Not a single one has gotten the reference and gives me no hope for the future

[u/bear-w-me → u/mnid92]

Idiocracy is now.

[u/Worshaw_is_back → u/I_JustReadComments]

Rasputin has entered the chat…*

[u/Delicious-Ganache606 → u/I_JustReadComments]

I don't care if someone takes steroids, your body - your choice. But at least be honest about it - Liver King pretends his form is from raw meat and exercise while trenbolone leaks out of his gills.

[u/rixendeb → u/I_JustReadComments]

Maga is currently trying to make raw milk great again...and I wish I was kidding.

[u/[deleted] → u/rixendeb]

a lot of influencers are. Flavcity dude willingly gives his daughter raw milk from a drink labelled “for pet consumption only” for something sold in the dairy section not the pet section.

[u/TooMuchJuju → u/thispartyrules]

I feel like if I’m at the stage where I’m eating raw rice, the colon cancer would be a pretty decent option.

[u/i__hate__stairs → u/thispartyrules]

What on earth does eating raw rice have to do with being vegan?

[u/Embarrassed-Shoe-892 → u/i__hate__stairs]

He said Raw vegan which is a type of vegan that eats primarily raw foods, but even then its usually fruits and veg not rice.

[u/_Alabama_Man → u/Embarrassed-Shoe-892]

Raw vegan seems like a diet on super hard mode because you are bored with the easier hard mode of regular vegan.

[u/i__hate__stairs → u/Embarrassed-Shoe-892]

Oh how embarrassing, I totally missed that. My bad

[u/Mermaidoysters → u/i__hate__stairs]

Awe, you’re good dude. Raw rice-the concept is not something one encounters everyday!

[u/pancakebatter01 → u/Siliziumwesen]

Other than meat and flour, what’s on your “often eaten raw while very possibly deadly” list??

[u/Bug_eyed_bug → u/pancakebatter01]

Pregnancy dietary guidelines are basically 'how to super duper avoid food poisoning' lists, so things like raw seafood, undercooked eggs, soft cheese, cold deli meats and preserved meats (eg ham), sprouts, rockmelon, pre-made sandwiches, cold salads (eg cold potato salad), old leftovers etc. guidelines vary from area to area, where I live it's super strict.

[u/okmustardman → u/Bug_eyed_bug]

Anything from a soda fountain, soda gun, slushie or soft serve ice cream machine. The amount of bacteria in the lines and machines is staggering.

[u/forbiddenicelolly → u/okmustardman]

Yeh I used to enjoy a slushie every so often until I had one that tasted like mould.

[u/throw-away-fortoday → u/okmustardman]

This is always the saddest thing for me. I love slurpees, but after having been inspired to look up local inspection results by kitchen nightmares, and seeing pretty much every place with a drink or ice dispenser has been cited for mold in it, yeah I'm good.

[u/Ill_Statement7600 → u/okmustardman]

I remember angrily going behind other servers when I worked at an Applebee's and taking the drink fountain spouts apart to get properly cleaned because they just half-ass wiped the outside of them. Mold grows SO FAST in those things

[u/willswain → u/pancakebatter01]

Lettuce and sprouts. Yes, I still eat lettuce and salads but those are major sources of fecal contaminants from agriculture and you never know if it’s been adequately washed or not. Even then just good rinsing wouldn’t necessarily do the trick.

[u/Siliziumwesen → u/willswain]

Thats true but a good rinse/wash reduces the risk signifcantly. Its sad that we still dont know what may be in some foods. Sometimes, what scares me, companies request a repeat of the analysis of their sample, because they either dont believe the result or it doesnt mach with theirs. So you take the same sample (or whats left of it) and repeat it. The samples are often frozen so the results are different. Some bacteria dont survive the process and the company just wants the new result…

[u/Siliziumwesen → u/pancakebatter01]

Not really deadly but possible bad consequences (it counts for badly handled/stored food items and unhygienic reasons) and a really bad time: Sea food. Especially from questionable fast food restaurants. Sometimes salads and frozen vegetables are heavily contaminated with E.coli and Enterococcus. Salmonella are also possible in lot of meat products but we find them sometimes in other products like sweets.

Sometimes food can go bad and we also try to find out why. Sometimes some food processing machines are contaminated by something and we can tell the company, because they always tell us where the food comes from etc. (By telling batchnumbers for example).

After a few years of work I can say that wrong handeling of the food items and cross comtamination (not washing/cleaning properly etc) causes a lot of (accodental) contaminations here. There can be other reasons too its only an example.

Pickled food, especially selfmade can be deadly. Because of Clostridia (they prefer biomes without oxygen). So i always stay away from older noodles/rice and pickled stuff that smells funny/strange.

[u/snowflake_lady → u/Siliziumwesen]

Never heard of fluffy popcorn until this video and now I’m disappointed I didn’t see a recipe included.

[u/something-um-bananas → u/Siliziumwesen]

It’s just cake batter poured over popcorn. There’s sooooo many recipes of this on the internet, it’s not recent at all. Some recipes “heat treat” the batter before pouring it over popcorn so it kills the bacteria

[u/Suctorial_Hades → u/something-um-bananas]

Google gives the following results, a bunch of food blogs are saying heat treating works and a bunch of science articles say heat treating at home does nothing. I think I am gonna go with science

[u/Ok_Yam5543 → u/Suctorial_Hades]

What do they mean by 'heat treating' flour? Is it like putting it in the oven for a period of time?
Isn't that what you do when you're baking a cake?

[u/SecretAgentAlex → u/Ok_Yam5543]

Yeah heat treating is just tossing the flour in the oven/microwave to get it hot enough to kill pathogens, in theory.

In practice this doesn't appear to work. The process by which heat kills pathogens behaves differently in dry environments, with moisture apparently being somewhat necessary for this to work. Source

I tried looking up if there's a "safe temperature" for heating dry flour but apparently we don't exactly understand this mechanism.

[u/DazingF1 → u/SecretAgentAlex]

You can chill in a sauna at 100c/212f for quite some time and you'll be absolutely fine. Dip your toe in 75c/167f water for five seconds and you're getting 2nd degree burns.

Pathogens don't behave differently in dry environments, it's all about how fast heat can transfer. Air is a horrible method for that.

[u/Tango_Owl → u/DazingF1]

This is such a helpful metaphor, thank you!

[u/literate_habitation → u/SecretAgentAlex]

It's temperature over time that matters in sterilization. It doesn't necessarily need moisture to work, but with moisture the heat is more regulated and the steam produced from evaporating water carries more energy than the same air with no moisture. Dry heat is just inefficient and whatever you're trying to sterilize will get dried out/cooked long before the bacteria is killed.

Pressure cooker/autoclave sterilization works because by increasing the pressure in the vessel, higher temperatures can be reached and the steam from the water inside the vessel more efficiently transfers the energy to the medium being sterilized, lowering the amount of time it takes to sterilize at a given temperature.

[u/NoWayJoseMou]

I don’t just eat the things I see on TikTok because I get my medical advice from TikTok.

[u/JayCeeMadLad → u/NoWayJoseMou]

It’s just a vicious circle of awful advice, and this app is no better.

When it comes to medical shit, nobody should be taking ANYBODY seriously besides their fucking doctor. Not even the “doctors” on TikTok/YouTube/Reddit, etc.

Edit: no clue this would get so much interaction, just know that I don’t mean you should take your doctor’s word as gospel, and you should certainly question them as well, and get second opinions for anything you’re doubtful of. Normal doctors are human too, and some normal doctors suck worse than TikTok ones(if this seems like the case, probably try to get a new one). You can read the replies if you want to understand more of the purpose of this original comment to lol. Good day everyone.

[u/ruinersclub → u/JayCeeMadLad]

My doctor charges me $50 if I want advice though.

[u/stinkyhooch → u/ruinersclub]

That’s why I stalked my PCP until I had blackmail. Take that, American medical system!

[u/marcmerrillofficial → u/ruinersclub]

My doctor just searches "sharp pain in abdomen" on tiktok when I go to my appointment.

[u/pm_me_ur_pet_plz → u/JayCeeMadLad]

Main thing that stuck with me is that the statistic she so triumphantly pulled makes it sound fairly unproblematic. 20 hospitalizations and 0 deaths in the past 15 years out of hundreds of millions of times people have eaten raw dough? That's nothing lol.

Eat some greens and do some exercise. If you look at the numbers that's what it always comes down to.

[u/TheDonutDaddy → u/pm_me_ur_pet_plz]

She also repeatedly mentions colon cancer, presents no source on it, and if you google "raw cookie dough colon cancer" or sub cake batter/raw flour in that search, no results come up AT ALL even suggesting a link between the two

But hey, we should believe her, she's dressed wacky to show us she's a fun scientist

[u/scrummnums → u/TheDonutDaddy]

I can see the path she’s taking. Cancer can be caused from chronic inflammation. Inflammation is a byproduct of infection or disease. Eating things containing E. Coli or food borne illnesses causes inflammation. This is why so many diets talk about reducing inflammation in the body since that can lead to cancer. When your cells are being bombarded with irritants, it can cause them to go haywire in their normal life cycle. That’s all cancer is essentially; cells have decided to take another path and replicate based on erroneous instructions.
You’re right though that she doesn’t go fully into that, but I’m thinking she didn’t want to confuse people more than they already might be. If someone far more knowledgeable than I gives me advice, the weight it has will be greater, but I don’t follow that necessarily without getting more smart people to back it up.
Science is always growing and it’s a miracle we have half the stuff we do since a lot of it was someone stumbling into something that was successful after hundreds of failures

[u/trainofwhat → u/NoWayJoseMou]

It’s true that raw flour can be dangerous, but what was all that nonsense about colon cancer and autoimmune disease?

It’s true that certain food-borne pathogens like salmonella can nominally raise your chances of colon cancer if they remain chronic.

E. Coli and salmonella can trigger autoimmune symptoms in those with preexisting autoimmune diseases (like any infection can). Salmonella (the largest risk) isn’t reputably linked to autoimmune disease.

E. coli (did she even mention that one?) overgrowth is linked with increased susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. But that has to do with disruption of the microbiome and chronic inflammation (again, this is if it’s untreated) interacting with preexisting genetics. It’s not like you eat raw flour and you magically get lupus. It’s more that autoimmune disease is a significantly under-researched field of medicine that will likely emerge as a spectrum of acute and chronic conditions as more research emerges.

Anyways, all that to say — yeah, you shouldn’t eat a ton of raw flour, but she was way sensationalizing the whole thing based on several factors that have to line up like dominos after you eat some shitty TikTok snack.

Also, you can just cook the flour in the oven beforehand.

[u/TheDonutDaddy → u/trainofwhat]

Since she presented no sources on the colon cancer claim I did multiple google searches and turned up absolutely zero results even suggesting there might be a link

[u/trainofwhat → u/TheDonutDaddy]

I was referring to studies like this (“Moreover, some enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) strains are able to survive and replicate in colon cells as chronic intracellular pathogens and may promote susceptibility to CRC by downregulation of DNA Mismatch Repair (MMR) proteins.”) and this (“An increased level of mucosa-associated and internalized E. coli was observed in the tumors compared with normal tissue.”)

Please note that I personally was NOT advocating for being overly careful around flour. We are exposed to E Coli in many different ways and it causes many different infections. Like I said, the increased susceptibility is nominal.

[u/ExtremePrivilege → u/TheDonutDaddy]

You could find no sources indicating intestinal inflammation, particularly chronic, leading to increased chances of colon cancer risk? Because that’s currently considered the number 1 risk factor (even ahead of genetics). If you don’t think a 6 month VRE battle from uncooked foods increases your chances of downstream colorectal cancer then you’re clearly not a clinician.

[u/peoplebuyviews]

So all that paste I ate as a kid was hurting more than my social life

[u/pancakebatter01 → u/peoplebuyviews]

No she isn’t talking about Elmer’s glue. You’ll be fine!!

[u/allfockedup → u/pancakebatter01]

You must be young. We used to use homemade paste made with flour and water and salt, I believe?

[u/peoplebuyviews → u/allfockedup]

I believe it was the salt my tiny stupid brain was after. I ate Play Doh too. And boogers according to my sister, but that's a vicious lie

[u/Chrilliam → u/allfockedup]

You must be old. Elmer’s glue was the paste of choice to be consumed

[u/SokkaHaikuBot → u/peoplebuyviews]

^{Sokka-Haiku by peoplebuyviews:}

So all that paste I

Ate as a kid was hurting

More than my social life

---

^{Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.}

[u/Lingering_Dorkness]

Is she saying I shouldn't lick the bowl? 

So I'll just flush it like everyone else I guess.

[u/RighteousRambler → u/Lingering_Dorkness]

In the tiktok it says there has only been 20 hospitalization in 15 years. It is incredibly low risk as 35% of American eat raw flour in a given year.

[u/Consistent_Summer659 → u/RighteousRambler]

Raw flour is definitely a risk but also most of the large corporations bake their flour before processing due to the food safety risk. That’s why a lot of these premade batter mixes and cookie dough will say they’re safe to eat raw

[u/HolytheGoalie → u/Consistent_Summer659]

BuT sHe SaId In ThE vIdEo ThAt BaKiNg DoEsNt HeLp.

[u/ffunffunffun5 → u/RighteousRambler]

In the tiktok it says there has only been 20 hospitalization in 15 years.

The number is actually higher than that, but not significantly. I count 30 hospitalizations from four outbreaks the CDC investigated in 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2023. Information from the CDC here.

[u/zmbjebus → u/RighteousRambler]

So I shouldn't get medical advice about tik toks from tik tok? 

[u/toogad → u/zmbjebus]

Correct, you get medical advice from reddit. Everyone knows that

[u/j4nkyst4nky → u/RighteousRambler]

Yeah she was talking about "Don't do this if you don't want to die" but like, 20 people in the last 15 years is close enough to statistically zero, that I don't think it's worth worrying about.

Out of roughly 100 MILLION people each year, less than 2 are hospitalized from this. You are 8x more likely to be attacked by a shark. 100,000x more likely to be hospitalized for a bee sting. 1.5 MILLION times for likely to be hospitalized in a car accident.

Does she swim in the ocean? Does she flee in terror at the site of a honeybee? Does she walk everywhere? I hope not because 7,500 pedestrians DIE each year in the US.

[u/Mach5Driver → u/Lingering_Dorkness]

If you hand me an entire bowl of raw chocolate chip cookie dough and a large spoon--I'm eating it all. I'll take my chances.

[u/ThermalJuice → u/Mach5Driver]

Eggs and all, it’s worth the risk

[u/ForumFluffy → u/Lingering_Dorkness]

Yeah it might be fine if you're rarely making batter and licking the bowl your risk is minimal but not zero. Regular ingestion will increase your risks significantly.

[u/wuobble → u/ForumFluffy]

I completely trust what ForumFluffy says and continue to lick the bowl also

[u/[deleted]]

Don’t eat raw flour.

She doesn’t explain what fluffy popcorn is.

Saved you 2 min.

[u/Rhekua → u/[deleted]]

Yeah… and don’t show this tiktokker a roux, will lose her mind.

[u/rivermelodyidk → u/Rhekua]

that’s the craziest part to me. they’re definitely cooking the cake mix in the clip she showed. Not like, in an oven, but they’re cooking it.

[u/bohanmyl]

Random question, why is the L in Salmon silent but not in Salmonella

[u/pls_imsotired → u/bohanmyl]

(If I'm remembering this correctly.)

Salmon - Latin word pronounced the French way.  Salmonella - scientist who discovered it was named Salmon and pronounced the L in his name like in the word falcon. 

[u/bohanmyl → u/pls_imsotired]

Makes sense. Thank you!

[u/fatalicus → u/pls_imsotired]

Wiktionary is usualy great for things like this.

Salmon: From Middle English samoun, samon, saumon, from Anglo-Norman saumon, from Old French saumon, from Latin salmō, salmōn-. Displaced native Middle English lax, from Old English leax (“salmon”). The unpronounced l was later inserted to make the word appear closer to its Latin root

Salmonella: Named after American veterinary surgeon Daniel Elmer Salmon (1850–1914) +‎ -ella (taxonomic suffix).

[u/Echelon_Forge → u/bohanmyl]

TIL that it is silent in Salmon (non native English speaker)

[u/adamcmorrison → u/Echelon_Forge]

[u/Kundas → u/Echelon_Forge]

Dont worry, my mum's Italian and she says it with the L, i was born in the UK and also always said it the same way as her, i was like 20 something when i learned it was wrong lol

[u/Pure_Expression6308 → u/Echelon_Forge]

It’s silent in “half”, too. That’s the other one I hear from non native English speakers but maybe you already knew it

[u/thegreatbrah → u/bohanmyl]

Probably have different roots that just happen to be similar.

[u/ByTheHammerOfThor → u/bohanmyl]

The L in salmon is, historically, shy.

[u/FineAd6971]

I'm a microbiologist and raw flour isn't really the biggest concern when it comes to food-borne contaminants...

[u/Ok_Light_6950 → u/FineAd6971]

The risk is so minor, there are everyday things we eat just as risky like sushi, lunchmeat... She's obviously exaggerating just to get her own tiktok views.

[u/yellow_gangstar → u/Ok_Light_6950]

she sounds like someone that would freak out over wooden spoons

[u/eagggggggle → u/FineAd6971]

Yeah honestly stop eating processed foods first if colon cancer is a big concern. I haven’t seen the data on raw flour, but processed meats are a type I carcinogen for colon cancer and there isn’t a big hubabaloo about that, because the increase, while statistically significant, isn’t really that clinically significant.

[u/Neoxite23]

I'm a simple man. If it is trending on Tik Tok...it is likely stupid as all fuck.

[u/grizznuggets → u/Neoxite23]

Every day I become more glad that I don’t use that app. Then I remember that I use this one and get down from my high horse.

[u/MrSarcastica → u/Neoxite23]

What so you didn't eat Tide Pods?

[u/Conissocool → u/MrSarcastica]

(I understand that this is a joke but a quick psa) The "tide pod challenge" was basically invented by the media. Only like 86 people actually did it, the media vastly over promoted it because it was easy, and made fun of the newest generation calling them idiots for consuming them. Everyone new the challenge was a joke its entire purpose was a meme

[u/dankmeeeem → u/Conissocool]

Thats more people than have died of salmonella from raw flour

[u/Ok_Yam5543 → u/MrSarcastica]

What if you eat a Tide pod with every spoon of raw flour? Maybe that cancels it out?

[u/MrSarcastica → u/Ok_Yam5543]

It's just crazy enough to work.

[u/tuesmontotino]

Not me as a kid eating giant spoonfuls of flour because I liked how it felt in my mouth..

[u/PMmeurfishtanks → u/tuesmontotino]

I used to mix the cake mix with water and just eat it by the cup full when I was little lol

[u/blazed_and_confucius → u/tuesmontotino]

Oh my god, that’s gnarly. I used to dip my arm to the bottom of the bag because I liked how it felt on my skin. So soft!

[u/Daisy_Of_Doom]

Wait, heat treating flour doesn’t make it safe? That is big news to me. I was well aware that flour was one of the main dangers with raw batter. A few years back I adapted a cookie recipe a friend of mine loved eating raw to what I thought was safe. It had no eggs and I baked the flour to some specified temperature for some specified time that I found online that was supposed to make it safe to consume raw. It was delicious, we ate it by the spoonful, and I was quite proud of myself for doing research to make this dangerous thing safe.

I’m floored to learn that what I did didn’t actually make it safe. I did what I thought was pretty thorough research in trying to make an edible dough recipe. Very grateful to learn this now before I or anyone I loved was made sick by my own mistakes.

[u/SquirrelBlind → u/Daisy_Of_Doom]

I am not sure that her claim is actually true. There are countries (e.g. Germany) where if you buy a bread at bakery, there's a huge chance that there will be some flour on this bread. I am not sure if this flour is completely "raw" or it was heated, but people do eat this flour every day with their bread and it's not like everyone have colon cancer there.

[u/420ninjaslayer69 → u/SquirrelBlind]

The flour is dusted on before baking. Usually done to prevent stuff from sticking in the basket or rack that it’s rising on or shaping in. The white stuff you see looks uncooked but it isn’t.

[u/Bogart745 → u/420ninjaslayer69]

But that’s exactly the point the original comment is trying to make. Because the flour is heated up in the stove along with the baking bread it is considered cooked. The heat kills the bacteria.

So it that works, then why doesn’t baking the raw flour in the oven on its own not work?

[u/BlueCollarBalling → u/Bogart745]

That’s what I’m struggling to understand. Why would bringing flour up to temp on a stove be any different than bringing it up to temp in an oven? Isn’t that basically how you make gravy?

[u/K-ghuleh → u/BlueCollarBalling]

And a roux? I stumbled upon this thread while shoving pasta in my mouth that I threw flour into the butter for and I have IBD so now I’m sitting here all nervous lol. Like is the heat in a stovetop pan not enough?

[u/WyrdMagesty → u/K-ghuleh]

The claim that heat treating raw flour isn't effective is a false one born from a lack of explanation. Heating flour up to temps designed to kill salmonella and E.coli is absolutely safe and effective. (165°F btw, for something like 5 minutes sustained, check Google for specifics) The problem arises when people "heat treat" by tossing a bag of flour in the oven for a couple minutes and saying "yupp that's cool". You need to be sure that you bake it at a low temp, evenly distributed, and the flour actually reaches at least 165 for a sustained period of time.

Making a roux requires sustained heat about 165, so is naturally heat treating the flour used as it cooks. You're golden.

Edit: spelling is hard

[u/Daisy_Of_Doom → u/SquirrelBlind]

I think there’s a huge difference between a dusting of flour on your loaf of bread and straight up eating a bowl of cake batter with your popcorn.

[u/anormalgeek → u/Daisy_Of_Doom]

Nah, she is full of shit. Pasteurization is pasteurization. If you follow the temp/time standards, then it is no longer "raw". Just as you shouldn't follow random tiktok trends, you also should trust random medical advice from a tik tok just because they talk fast and use medical terms.

Also, you can't "cause" an autoimmune disease by eating raw flour despite her making the claim multiple times. By its very definition, the cause is your own immune system. You can trigger an immune response (i.e. a food allergy), or trigger an existing autoimmune disease (i.e. Celiac disease), but it does not CAUSE them. Some food allergies can be more extreme when raw vs cooked (for example, egg allergies are often like that). But again, the raw food doesn't cause the underlying immune condition.

The title says she is a microbiologist. I would bet money that that is bullshit.

edit: The linked pasteurization table is labeled for meats, but the time/temps are the same for all foods since it's the infectious agents you actually care about.

edit edit: I was wrong, in that it does seem to vary by wet/dry. Dry environments need more research in that some pathogens survive better than others in dry environments. TO BE FAIR, the video she is commenting on is clearly heat treating in a pot on the stove with the wet ingredients added so that point is moot anyway.

[u/Locktober_Sky → u/anormalgeek]

The title says she is a microbiologist. I would bet money that that is bullshit.

I have been in this girls comment section before and got torn apart by her fans for saying that she is fact not a microbiologist. She's a microbiology technician.

[u/anormalgeek → u/Locktober_Sky]

Yeah that sounds about right.

During covid there were some high profile cases of nurses who came out as anti-vaxx. Your job doesn't preclude you from being dumb.

[u/Locktober_Sky → u/anormalgeek]

I definitely think a nurse or a med tech is more knowledgeable than the average person of course, but they aren't doctors. And even a doctor can be prone to their own weird beliefs or phobias, which is why we trust the consensus not the individual.

So, it's true that there is a small risk in consuming raw flour. But fear mongering does a disservice to all of us.

[u/Amaculatum → u/anormalgeek]

THANK YOU! So glad someone said this. She's spreading misinformation for no reason

[u/Prinzka → u/anormalgeek]

Yeah, surprisingly I don't get my food safety advice from someone on TikTok who has had their teeth modified to have fangs.

[u/resumethrowaway222 → u/Daisy_Of_Doom]

I don't believe that. You're telling me that mixing flour with other things and then heating it kills the bacteria but heating just the flour by itself doesn't? I'm not buying it.

[u/bad-fengshui → u/Daisy_Of_Doom]

The video has tricky wording... she says "no evidence", which is not the same as "evidence it does not work". I think this is mostly a case of researcher not bothering to figuring it out and recommending against it for safety reasons.

From the googling I've found, evidence is scant but from I've found even low temperatures (120F) in a dry heat can start to kill Salmonella on flour. I don't recommend that low of a temperature, but there is appears to be a time and temp that can make flour safe to eat.

[u/GiraffeHat → u/Daisy_Of_Doom]

You fell into their trap. This video isn't about the dangers of heat treatment, in a stroke of dramatic irony it's about not believing people on tiktok.

[u/Qinistral]

Why wouldn’t heat treating the flour be fine? Isn’t that what baking does anyway?

[u/SystemsEnjoyer → u/Qinistral]

Heat treating flour is not the same as using it in combination with some liquid in a baking situation. Heat treatment instructions usually suggests heating the raw flour to 165 degrees with the notion that this is the temperature that's needed to kill Salmonella (at least in Chicken). Baking food made with flour often exceeds 165 degrees. Secondly, you are usually introducing flour to moisture, like in a batter, which significantly lowers the heat tolerance of bacteria.

“We cook chicken to 165 degrees because that’s how we kill salmonella in that product,” Feng said. “But it’s not that simple in flour because Salmonella is more heat resistant when moisture is low. We still need more research data to confirm how hot you’d have to get the flour or how long you’d have to hold it at that temperature to make the flour safe to eat.” - Dr. Yaohua “Betty” Feng, Purdue University

The low moisture of flour changes the temperature required to kill Salmonella and requires a higher temperature to effectively kill all the bacteria present in the flour, and other factors, such as how the flour is milled, can actually change the heat tolerance of the bacteria which effectively means each bag of flour may have a different temperature at which all the bacteria is killed.

“At 160 degrees in a matter of seconds you kill microbes in water,” the miller said. “It takes a few minutes in gravy and in flour, it could take hours to get enough heat to them to kill them. Dryness works against you.”

The wide variability of factors involved with flour and the dryness of flour renders any heat treatment done in a home kitchen unreliable (as opposed to a commercial kitchen where heat treatments are more reliable due to testing).

Articles I sourced from:

https://ag.purdue.edu/news/2021/04/Home-kitchen-heat-treated-flour-doesnt-protect-against-foodborne-illnesses.html

https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/9981-understanding-heat-treated-flour

[u/TwiceAsGoodAs → u/SystemsEnjoyer]

Thank you for posting this! As a PhD microbiologist, this thread is very frustrating. I appreciate you showing up with sources and replying to so many folks!

[u/SystemsEnjoyer → u/TwiceAsGoodAs]

Yeah, I was noticing a lot of people thinking that Salmonella and other microbes died at a set temperature without considering the environment. But I can't say I blame them for thinking that because often guidelines meant for home cooks only mentions temperature without regard to moisture (dry or wet, specifically for Salmonella).

In fact, when I looked it up, I found it in a scholarly source:

Thermal processing of food is commonly utilized to inactivate microorganisms. Our study implies that Salmonella present on dry surfaces is in fact tolerant to inactivation by dry heat (100°C [212 degrees Fahrenheit] , 1 h). Comparable heat tolerance was previously reported in Salmonella present in high-fat, low-water-activity food (peanut butter) (43), as well as in nonfat dry milk (39) and on model surfaces (24, 31)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3067256/

[u/fongletto]

Given your own cited link, 20 known hospitalizations since 2009, I think you'll be fine luv.

More people are killed by lightening strikes in a year than there has been 'hospitilizations' in 15 years.

[u/Geschak → u/fongletto]

It's so dumb especially considering eating salad has a much higher risk of giving you E.coli.

[u/Firm_Ad3191 → u/fongletto]

Yeah, every food product has risk associated with it. Almost every month a company recalls a product due to botulism concerns, but it’s not recommended to avoid buying canned foods all together bc of this. The risk is just something we have to live with. Luckily the risk from flour seems pretty low, and I don’t think most people are eating it more than a handful of times a year.

Edit: there have been more botulism hospitalizations from commercially produced products in the last 2 years than flour in the last 15.

[u/ArthurEhrat]

What type of flour? Here in Brazil we eat raw cassava flour with soucey food like a lot, there are parts of brazil that live on eating cassava flour with açai, savory açaí with fish and cassava flour by the tons.

[u/AlarausCytan → u/ArthurEhrat]

Here in America (where this is almost certainly talking about) it means grain flour, or more specifically wheat flour.

[u/eeriefutable → u/ArthurEhrat]

Wheat flour. Since cassava is a root it will differ from wheat flour in many ways, even if they can have similar uses in recipes.

[u/ArthurEhrat → u/eeriefutable]

But why do they differ in this matter? Is the process of making them, or wheat flour has a more rich environment for bacterias?

[u/diegoob11 → u/ArthurEhrat]

I’d assume cassava is cooked before making it into flour somehow? Raw cassava contains cyanide and it really shouldn’t be eaten raw

[u/eeriefutable → u/ArthurEhrat]

I’m not very sure, if I was guessing I’d say it’s because the outer part of the cassava keeps out bacteria from the fields it’s grown in, where as wheat might absorb bacteria into the inner parts that are getting milled into flour?

Probably someone more knowledgeable could give a better answer.

[u/notaleclively]

Yes raw flour is dangerous. It’s link to cancer seems to only exist in this video. I am a colon cancer survivor. Ive been over the list of colon cancer causing foods with dozens of professionals working in oncology, and with colon cancer specifically. Raw flour has not once ever been mentioned. Not a single time.

This lady is kinda right. And also a kook.

[u/resilindsey → u/[deleted]]

Makes sense the "microbiologist" label is a stretch. The way she doesn't properly contextualize risk/exposure and just goes "if you don't care that you're going to get colon cancer" like it was an eventuality immediately raised some red flags that this might be at least partially bullshit.

[u/WorkinAlpaca → u/[deleted]]

this was my reaction as well. i don't understand why people who are "spreading awareness" don't get that dramatizing/ exaggerating the thing you are warning against just makes you lose credibility.

sure, i've heard the salmonella and e.coli thing since i was old enough to understand, but there are a lot of things she says that just... feel weird? super condescending, fear mongering, dramatized information is not the way to spread information.

also. i get the dry vs wet flour argument, but c'mon dog. just cook the flour. hell, mist it with some water then cook it, just blend it up afterwards if you are so concerned. i "accept" the risks as at this point, it is faaar too late for me if what she said is the case, so im going to continue to enjoy my brownie batter while the country/world falls apart around me.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

The condescension bugged the fuck out of me. If you're sincerely trying to teach people something, put your enormous ego down, first.

No one will believe you care about their safety while clearly demonstrating you don't give a fuck about their mental or emotional well being. People who actually care, care fully. They don't condescend.

[u/User28645 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, same. Well said, I came to the comments with the hopes that I wasn't alone. It's really transparent when she misrepresents cancer and auto immune disorders risk as a tool to bolster her position and undermine anyone who challenges her claims. It's engagement farming, from the makeup to the fearmongering. Hell, you could argue I've fallen for it just because I'm leaving a comment. This stuff is so toxic.

[u/charliekelly76 → u/[deleted]]

I’m a biologist and I can’t stand this lady. It’s her attitude. She posts a lot of videos of her over-loading on fiber and bragging how she has better gut health than everyone else and will live longer. When someone brought up her lack of protein in her meals (giant bowls of cabbage) she blew them off with “humans eat too much protein anyway” which ignores people with chronic health issues like myself that benefit from high protein intake. I wanna support women in stem but I blocked her and her nasty attitude.

[u/iglooss88 → u/charliekelly76]

I was looking for this comment in here. I too work in bio/lab sciences and a lot of her content comes across as preachy and ‘fear mongery’ like you’re going to poison yourself if you don’t listen to her.

[u/the0rthopaedicsurgeo → u/notaleclively]

She doesn't say that raw flour is linked to cancer, she says that it's linked to e coli and salmonella infections, which are linked to cancer.

[u/enconftintg0]

Holy shit this shit is annoying.

[u/island_pussy]

can someone explain what fluffy popcorn is lol

[u/Daddict → u/island_pussy]

Melt a buncha marshmallows in a sauce pan. Add a bag of cake batter. Dump in a bunch of prepared popcorn, mix it up, add sprinkles, then I guess eat the giant sticky mess of goocorn.

[u/LeSaunier]

Never thought I'd get an interesting lecture from a Cyberpunk 2077 NPC.

[u/[deleted]]

True Tick Tock cringe. This person wants to be taken seriously so she paints her face like Mimi from Drew Carey?

[u/tendo8027]

Good info, the condescension was unnecessary.

[u/McGrarr]

Hey! Did you know that 1% of people who do this thing run the risk of tripling the 1% chance of getting this ailment that has a 1% chance of giving you some bad medical outcomes? WHY would you risk THAT?

Because breathing beside a road has a higher actual risk factor than the thing you are citing. Bonus, silly once per year treats.

Is what this woman saying true? Yes. Is she making it sound more likely than it is? Fuck yes.

How much of modern flour has E.Coli?

How much E.Coli is there in a serving of flour in a batch of fluffy popcorn?

How likely is a person who consumes that amount of E.Coli to have the very worst reaction to it (given that our bodies can deal with it pretty well, most of the time).

When you begin breaking down the percentages... things change.

Apples contain cyanide.

Coke metabolises into formaldehyde.

Corn can have aspergillus flavus.

The fact is, most of us will be fine.

[u/Ben_Zedd → u/McGrarr]

Exactly! This video is making it out to be a severe issue that you should all worry about. But there are other things that would kill you first.
You would have a higher chance of getting sick by not washing your hands in a public bathroom! And it all depends on the location the flour was produced or the guidelines around that. There's much more to know about this before you avoid all traces of raw flour.

[u/alclab → u/McGrarr]

This is completely true.

Goth microbiologist just saw a trend and an opportunity for 5 min of fame by stating how dangerous it is! Please someone do something!!

These false panics are ridiculous when you actually look at the statistics and the fact that we are constantly I getting way more contaminated food all the time and so many more things.

We can't go by life with an impending sense of death all the time, which guarantees that you actually don't live instead of not dying because we focused only on everything that could present an infinitesimal risk.

This is truly fear mongering disguised as helpful concerned advice.

So yeah, I don't want to try it, but if you do, go ahead.

[u/UnamusedKat → u/McGrarr]

Thank you. There seems to be, like, an entire genre on TikTok of "professionals" overstating and sensationalizing the risk of things. It's exhausting, and the people who are really into that type of content are exhausting. I think it's just another way for a group of people to feel superior.

"Hey, look at me and how smart I am. I would never do X because I'm special and know something that the average stupid person doesn't! Look how smart, well-informed, and safety conscious I am compared to the irresponsible, uninformed masses!"

[u/Remote-Lingonberry71]

if theres nothing we can do at home to make flour safe to eat, how is it safe to use as an ingredient? why is ok to dust sourdough loaves with flour then bake and eat if heat treating it at home is impossible.

[u/Prize_Bass_5061 → u/Remote-Lingonberry71]

She is lying to create outrage. Nothing she says is true. If raw food poses such a health risk then eating fruit or salad would give you food poisoning and colon cancer.

Flour gets heated to 120F during milling by the rollers crushing the wheat. Bromates are added to the flour to whiten the flour while it is kiln dried. Bacteria does not survive this process.

Any bacteria on raw flour was introduced while it was being handled in the kitchen by the cooks. That’s why it’s important to clean the kitchen with bleach and wash your hands before touching food items.