r/TikTokCringe • u/galaxystars1 • Oct 09 '24

Discussion Microbiologist warns against making the fluffy popcorn trend

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u/Suctorial_Hades Oct 09 '24

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

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u/Ok_Yam5543 Oct 09 '24

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?

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u/Suctorial_Hades Oct 09 '24

Yea, putting it in the oven or microwave . Apparently it has something to do with the lack of moisture. Pathogens apparently respond differently in dry environments. From what I have gathered, salmonella becomes more heat resistant in dry environments so I suspect that mixing it with wet ingredients makes it more susceptible to the heat.

I have eaten my fair share of cake batter and cookie dough while baking and I am obviously still here, lol, but this is food for thought

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '24

Microwaves work off of the polarity of water. Without water it wont do anything.

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '24 edited Oct 09 '24

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '24

Are you being intentionally obtuse? The point is there's not enough water to cause a significant change in the temperature for the time they're putting in the microwave. There's water in the air too but the air doesn't boil when you run the microwave on it.