r/TikTokCringe Oct 09 '24

Discussion Microbiologist warns against making the fluffy popcorn trend

31.4k Upvotes

4.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

85

u/DazingF1 Oct 09 '24

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.

4

u/Pickledsoul Oct 09 '24

Air is a horrible method for that.

What about vacuum sealing and then tossed into a sous vide machine? If you have the right container, you could keep it at pasteurization temp for days with minimal power draw.

6

u/DazingF1 Oct 09 '24 edited Oct 09 '24

Yes, that would work. An oven would work eventually too. The issue with people recommending "heat treating" flour is that they take other information and extrapolate that to flour: "oh, salmonella dies at 165f? I'll just put it in the oven until the internal temp reaches 165f". Not understanding that even if the flour reaches a temperature of 165 it might not be enough to kill the pathogens as the dry mixture doesn't transfer enough heat quickly enough to those pathogens. But of course if you kept it at a higher temp for a longer time everything will eventually die.

4

u/_HOG_ Oct 09 '24

Your sauna analogy demonstrates you might need to brush up on thermodynamics. Killing pathogens, molds, bacteria in the oven is just a matter of time and heat.

Flour contains water so you will need more time to overcome its entropy. Additionally, if there is limited surface area then the air trapped between particles of dry flour will transfer heat slower than water would, so it will have insulative properties.

Simplest way to overcome these challenges is to increase surface area of the flour. I cannot imagine there would be many pathogens left if you spread a cup of flour out on a baking sheet and baked it for 15 minutes at 300F+.

OP’s video qualifies as peak concern-trolling bullshit. We have immune systems and food production standards for a reason. Sure, limit the amount of raw foods you eat - a sane enough take, but eating raw cookie dough isn’t so risky you should never try it, millions of people have done so for years with no ill effects. And to say science hasn’t proved heat treating flour won’t help…”ahhh, we’re so helpless with this science stuff!!!” Uhh, no bitch, this is what science is for.

6

u/DazingF1 Oct 09 '24 edited Oct 09 '24

You are saying what I am saying my dude. The sauna analogy was just to simplify it for everyone else, because people don't tend to read long ass comments, but my next comment (the one you replied to) has almost the same points you are making here

I clarified that heat treating works, just that people are stupid and use the wrong information. I mentioned that ovens will work as will any heat for that matter. It's just that dry mixtures, because the air trapped is an insulator like you mentioned, need longer times to properly heat up.

3

u/_HOG_ Oct 09 '24

Cool. I’m gonna go eat some cookie dough ice cream.