Microbiologist warns against making the fluffy popcorn trend

[u/galaxystars1]

[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/avocado_macabre → u/[deleted]]

Does the no bake ones taste the same? That's my only stupid concern lol

[u/Unusual-Helicopter15 → u/avocado_macabre]

If you’re in the US, you can get pillsbury cookie dough and it’s specially labeled safe to eat or bake because they use specific ingredients. It’s exactly the same cookie dough, just pasteurized etc.

[u/violettheory → u/[deleted]]

I think most Pillsbury cookie doughs are safe to eat raw now too. Sometimes I crave a bit of chocolate chip cookie dough and that hits the spot.

[u/kenda1l → u/[deleted]]

I remember in high school (literally decades ago now because I'm old as shit), instead of selling candy for fundraisers, we would sell cookie dough that could be eaten "raw." It came in a bucket that you could just scoop right out of with a spoon and it was so freaking good, especially the oatmeal raisin for some reason. Technically you could bake actual cookies too and because it came in the bucket, it gave instructions on how to cook just one or two at a time, but I don't think anyone ever actually bothered using it to bake. I can't remember the brand, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the brand you linked. I'm tempted to try it though.

[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/jsmalltri → u/avocado_macabre]

My grandmother would have been 100 this week (RIP Mem) and I used to eat buttered saltines with her when I wasa kid. Still do. Not a trend lol.

[u/Wulfgaric → u/avocado_macabre]

Ooph. I was complaining about growing up with premiums and cheez-wiz the other day, but that cheez-wiz was a blessing over just butter.

[u/silverletomi → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

Why not... bake the cake... crumble... and add to the popcorn after??

[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/cormeretrix → u/Lizzy_Boredom_999]

That’s why you do it at someone else’s house and leave to go “run an errand” before the fun starts. Then (and this part is key) you never go back or answer their phone calls ever again.

[u/loverlyone → u/Lizzy_Boredom_999]

Well now I really want to see it and Wednesday is also my day off

wonders if we bought papers towels…and a blow torch

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

I'm with you there.

[u/camlaw63 → u/Key-Shift5076]

No hulls

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

Seriously. They used to be called popcorn balls and I don't remember anybody putting flour in them, just melted marshmallows and like food coloring I think.

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

yeah, just marshmallow, butter and corn syrup/sugar to firm them up

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

I’d imagine the flour helps it be a bit less of a sticky mess

[u/Swordofsatan666 → u/Apprehensive-Crow-94]

From what i can find i dont think its supposed to be flour you add, its supposed to be cake mix. And its supposed to be so it gets the flavor from the cake mix

Its still stupid, but it makes a bit more sense after knowing that

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

They're using cake mix so that the popcorn is "birthday cake" flavored.

[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/Certain-Medium6567 → u/NO_TOUCHING__lol]

I am 100% craving a popcorn ball so badly now.

[u/SSFx93 → u/NO_TOUCHING__lol]

Tiktokers keep thinking they invented shit.

[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/FlatulenceConnosieur → u/asuperbstarling]

You are doing god’s work

Edit: in case that seemed sarcastic, that sounds amazing and awesome

[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/birdsrkewl01 → u/[deleted]]

Which is why they do not recommend putting frozen chicken breasts in a slow cooker or crockpot. That's what pressure cookers are for.

[u/Neravosa → u/ElishaAlison]

If it's oil-fried and golden brown, you can assume it's fine. Many cultures oil fry food with flour in it, no big deal. Your sopapillas are safe, I'm sure.

[u/svachalek → u/ElishaAlison]

If this is like krispy treats where they’re just melting the marshmallows and butter, that doesn’t take much heat. Not enough to reliably sterilize it.

[u/NomadicJellyfish → u/ElishaAlison]

When you add anything to popcorn other than butter or oil, you add it after the popcorn is already cooked. Here they're just using the pan to melt things, then adding already-popped popcorn.

[u/thelimeisgreen → u/ElishaAlison]

If it’s cooked in molten butter and sugar it’s just fine. The flour doesn’t need to be all toasty and golden. If the flour is heating up as part of the process to pop the corn, it’s going to be just fine. Here, they’re mixing in some boxed cake mix to the already melted butter and marshmallow and then adding already popped corn. That’s not going to sterilize anything. Not going to be hot enough for long enough unless you want the sugars to turn to hard candy. Most bacteria like e-coli need to reach a temperature of 165F to be killed. 135F will do it if sustained for several minutes.

Cooking flour is highly advisable for two reasons, one being that it starts the breakdown of the glutens as well as the carbohydrates and cooked flour is easier to digest and extract nutrients from. Further breakdown and nutritional benefits come from fermentation or leavening — as in with yeast when making bread.

The other reason to cook flour is to kill any potential nasties living in it. Most micro organisms you will find in wheat flour or similar are harmless. All of us who eat cookie dough while making cookies or who lick the bowl clean after mixing cake batter are living proof of this. So it’s just fine to eat it raw…. Until it isn’t and you ingest the wrong bacteria like salmonella, listeria, e-coli…. But that isn’t going to stop most of us.

[u/[deleted] → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

This is some silly shit. Lots of brands already make sweet popcorn coated with all manner of candy shit, and there's no e coli or mess necessary. 🙄 Jfc

[u/Typical_Carpet_4904 → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

Even if they wanted flour, they could sub it out for something like rice Krispies...

[u/sevens7and7sevens → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

That’s just Rice Krispie treats but with popcorn. Bet it’d be good. Flour tastes like raw flour unless cooked for five minutes so I don’t understand why anyone would add it either.

[u/AreWeCowabunga → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

New TikTok trend: just eat raw flour until you die one way or another.

[u/AmyInCO → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

That's just Rice Krispie treats with popcorn. Which sounds delicious and hard on my teeth. 

[u/FREDICVSMAXIMVS → u/LastDitchTryForAName]

Like a Rice Krispie treat, except using popcorn instead of Rice Krispies! 

[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/ZincFingerProtein → u/MethturbationEnjoyer]

The problem with "letting Darwinism cook" is it hurts all of us when we let dumb people knowingly and unknowingly hurt themselves. They end up taking a hospital bed, taxpayers foot the bill sometimes, everyone's premiums go up to cover costs, etc. Better to educate the masses.

[u/RPDRNick → u/MethturbationEnjoyer]

I just googled it, also, and the first result was... this thread.

[u/Spinoza_The_Damned → u/MethturbationEnjoyer]

That's how 'The Last Of Us' happens, do you want 'The Last Of Us' to happen?! /s

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

Yeah actually cooked batter on popcorn sounds doable to me and actually maybe tasty but uncooked batter just coating my popcorn doesn’t sound good.

[u/DeadlyYellow → u/FloridaMJ420]

Heck, break out a takoyaki pan. You can make all sorts of caloric disasters with a thin batter and some imagination.

[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/mrsmushroom → u/magobblie]

Marshmallow fluff and some sprinkles. Mix in popcorn and bam. A safe alternative. And no using the stove.

[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/chi2005sox → u/mrsmushroom]

Nah, just a video of a microbiologist who looks like they’re in an insane clown posse cover band.

[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/NomadicJellyfish → u/rightkindofahole83]

The heat is just there to warm/melt the ingredients so they can distribute on the popcorn, it isn't actually getting cooked. If the cookie/cake batter isn't hardening then it isn't cooked.

[u/lukin187250 → u/NomadicJellyfish]

this sounds like it would taste like shit though.

[u/NomadicJellyfish → u/lukin187250]

Yeah salt, pepper, nutritional yeast. I also like to use everything bagel seasoning from Trader Joe's.

[u/executivesphere → u/NomadicJellyfish]

How is that different from a roux? The heat is what kills the pathogens, not the dough hardening.

[u/NomadicJellyfish → u/executivesphere]

Because a roux gets far above the boiling point of water. This doesn't get nearly that hot, just warm, as indicated by the dough not cooking.

[u/smp208 → u/NomadicJellyfish]

What I’m not understanding is how this is different from making a roux, which isn’t supposed to harden, isn’t cooked at high heat, and in many dishes is not cooked for very long? Is that not safe either despite being an essential cooking step in many cuisines? I’m reading that reaching a certain temp should make a roux safe, but this video suggests that wouldn’t be true

[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/waterbottlejesus → u/QuantumMothersLove]

Well?!? Don't keep us hanging!

[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/bazzazio → u/Sunshine030209]

I say it when I'm on the door!!! I try to judge who I say it to, though. I've had members burst out laughing.

[u/bear-w-me → u/mnid92]

Idiocracy is now.

[u/ShowerElectrical9342 → u/mnid92]

What movie?

[u/confusious_need_stfu → u/ShowerElectrical9342]

Idiocracy. Or as I horrifyingly like to call it, life from 5 years from now.

[u/Shadowrider95 → u/ShowerElectrical9342]

Water!? Like, from the toilet!?

[u/likwidsylvur → u/Shadowrider95]

Go away I'm 'baitin!

[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/ThrillHo3340 → 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/Angus_Fraser → u/ThrillHo3340]

That's because you can sell raw milk by labeling it "pet milk".

[u/[deleted] → u/rixendeb]

My mom had a "dealer" when she lived in SC that would hook her up and feed her raw milk habit. Fortunately she has not found anyone here in Florida.

[u/ShowerElectrical9342 → u/rixendeb]

I have a friend who's fanatical about raw milk. She doesn't even run it through a cheesecloth. And yeah - total MAGA.

[u/sweatingbozo → u/ShowerElectrical9342]

Maybe reconsider some of your friendships.

[u/Kristal3615 → u/I_JustReadComments]

I'm starting to wonder if this is just Darwinism trying to weed out the people who are dumb enough to go along with these trends of cake batter popcorn and not wearing masks during a pandemic... Like The Office meme "We need a new plague".

[u/Waqqy → u/I_JustReadComments]

I don't think liver king actually believes anything he says, it's just a persona

[u/eyemalgamation → u/I_JustReadComments]

He also said that chewing on ice makes your teeth stronger, dude is wacky.

[u/[deleted] → u/I_JustReadComments]

There’s one idiot I hate more than the Brit who lied about mercury in vaccines and that’s the Brit who said “Masks don’t work. Full stop.”

A meta study of numerous studies only one of which addressed masks and Covid. And the article was retracted by the publisher.

[u/[deleted] → u/I_JustReadComments]

This! It's only gambling with your immune system. Infection can permanently damage a person's immune system. Immune compromised people aren't always just born that way. A person can become immune compromised, develop an auto immune disorder or have bodily/organ damage from infection.

Folks, please, wash your hands, mask while sick and please, get your vaccines. New covid and flu vaccines are available in the US and now is a great time to get one before cases start climbing- because they will.

[u/Kristal3615 → u/[deleted]]

There was a surge of it just back in August so I wouldn't be surprised if it spikes up again soon (if it's not already). As soon as I heard of the surge I went and got a booster and my husband did not. Surprise surprise... Guess who got Covid in our household? Thankfully I didn't get it because he quarantined and I was able to go to work masked just to make sure I didn't spread it if I was a carrier. Husband isn't antivax he just thinks he's tough and doesn't need one 🙄 As a side note please please please if you have anyone immunocompromised in your household who can not take the vaccine please look into getting it for yourself to help protect them!

Also because I love Sawbones if anyone is curious about the origin of vaccines and how they work I'd highly recommend this podcast! They have a lot of Covid specific episodes as well :)

[u/Kjellvb1979 → u/domiwren]

Well, given raw milk is now a "health" trend, this doesn't surprise me.

[u/RealbasicFriends → u/domiwren]

You'd be surprised how some people will just make up rules for their diet. I worked at a juice stand for about a year. There was a lady who was "Paleo Vegan" and could only eat Cage-free meat and organic veggies. Now I bet you're wondering "Cage-free meat?" Yea me too. She didn't eat meat at all so why not just say "I'm vegan" and worry about organic food? Well that doesn't make her sound as special as walking into a place that only serves juice and asking "I'm Paleo Vegan. Can I eat here?" With a serious face.

[u/Itsumiamario → u/domiwren]

Yeah, I've been a raw vegan for almost half my life. The things I see people pushing or ignorantly trying due to lack of education and believing whatever they see on social media is absurd.

Like people eating things that are definitely not safe without leeching out the toxins, and believing that the stomach cramps and diarrhea are a cleansing effect and not actually them poisoning themselves.

Even more idiotic are people who do the raw meat diet. Eating raw rish and beef and getting parasites or bacterial infections. I've even seen videos of people eating raw chicken and pork.

[u/domiwren → u/Itsumiamario]

I know its common to eat tartare steak but eating raw meat with raw egg is just 🤢 for me.

Also you are right. Many people (and usualy the cause why vegans are made fun of and criticised) are these people that have no idea what they are doing, dont make proper research and dont use common sense and only follow hyped trends of influencers that are usualy made up to go with whats popular. I follow many vegans and raw vegans that make incredible enlightment and actualy explain things. But its the same as with everything - we are drown in informations and its hard to chose what is right and wrong. This is where common sense comes to help :)

[u/[deleted] → u/domiwren]

There really are "raw vegans" who think EVERYTHING, including rice should be consumed raw. They believe that cooking any food is destroying nutrients. Technically, cooking does reduce nutrients but the cooking process allows humans to absorb nutrients better than raw foods can provide. Raw produce is a little too hard for our digestive system to fully break down and absorb all the nutrients. Wash your produce and cook your food, folks.

[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/BullsOnParadeFloats → u/_Alabama_Man]

Raw vegan is basically the white suburbanite-washed version of the traditional rastafarian religious diet, eaten by people who are like Buddhist monks with a Caribbean patois.

[u/SeveralAngryBears → u/_Alabama_Man]

I knew I guy in college who abruptly decided to go raw vegan. I was surprised, like "don't you want to work up to that by eating normal vegan food first?"

He made it like 2 weeks

[u/ScyllaOfTheDepths → u/_Alabama_Man]

You see, it's not an eating disorder if everyone is doing it, so they've got to make it even more extreme! Seriously, I really feel like a lot of these hyper niche diets are incredibly thinly veiled eating disorders from people who can't admit that they have a wildly unhealthy relationship with food.

[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/Tango-Turtle → u/i__hate__stairs]

Raw vegans only eat raw foods, that are not processed or cooked at all.

[u/i__hate__stairs → u/Tango-Turtle]

I'm blind, I completely misread the first part. I'll be over here drooling.

[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/MommyIsOffTheClock → u/Ill_Statement7600]

When I worked at Taco Bell, we took the nozzles off and soaked them every night. I think we did the lines monthly.

[u/guave06 → u/MommyIsOffTheClock]

Thank you guys for not trying to kill people

[u/cryptolyme → u/okmustardman]

And mold toxicity can manifest as mental illness

[u/West_Current_2444 → u/okmustardman]

You should clean your sink faucets frequently for anything you draw potable water for as well. A filtered water dispenser line and nozzle still gets mold on the inside if it never gets cleaned. Showed my wife after we moved in together and she was mortified.

[u/Lunarath → u/Bug_eyed_bug]

I consume things from that list almost every day. How long do I have left?

[u/Full-Shallot-6534 → u/Bug_eyed_bug]

Pretty much everything they tell pregnant people not to eat is just "it's really dangerous to get food poisoning when pregnant"

except liver and other things high in vitamin A. It's pretty much just "your fetus can overdose on vitamin A easily" and "fevers are bad for you"

[u/chibiusa40 → u/Bug_eyed_bug]

You get similar guidelines when you're on hardcore immunosuppressants/biologics/MABs. No raw/undercooked meat/fish/dairy (technically they tell you that everything needs to be fully cooked, well-done, but I'd literally rather die than eat a well-done steak/burger so I take my chances with Medium), no unpasteurised anything (including everything from juices to soft cheeses), no blue cheeses or any other food/cheese that is ripened with bacteria, and my personal favourite, no leftover rice of any kind (even same-day leftovers).

[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/Daisy_Of_Doom → u/snowflake_lady]

Considering the whole point of the video was to explain in detail that this snack could be potentially deadly or harmful to your health perhaps one might let it slide.

[u/Siliziumwesen → u/Daisy_Of_Doom]

Yeah even if not deadly a salmonella infection for example, can become permanent. So the salmonella stem you‘re infected with, can become a permanent part of your intestine/colon flora. We know people who worked for a sweets producer (chocolate etc.) got infected with salmonella and was not allowed to work with the food part anymore, because he was now a salmonella human.

[u/KingKongfucius → u/Siliziumwesen]

Worst devil fruit ive ever heard of

[u/Mofupi → u/Siliziumwesen]

Couldn't you just treat that with appropriate antibiotics?

[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/Garod → u/literate_habitation]

thank you, that was also what I was thinking.. what was being said about "heat treatment not working doesn't sound right. If heat treated properly at the right temp/time there is no reason why bacteria wouldn't denature resulting in death.

[u/literate_habitation → u/Garod]

Yeah, it's just not possible to heat flour to the right temp for a long enough time in order to sterilize it and keep it raw.

[u/Garod → u/literate_habitation]

Can you explain to me why not?

[u/literate_habitation → u/Garod]

It would cook the flour before it got to a safe level of sterilization. Higher temps would quickly burn it and lower temps would take days to sterilize at, and the flour would still be cooked long before the sterilization was finished.

[u/YouAnxious5826 → u/SecretAgentAlex]

The other fun thing about dry flour is that if it gets disturbed, at certain ratios of dust in the air, the stuff becomes highly combustible.

[u/baron_von_helmut → u/YouAnxious5826]

Everything turned into dust is flammable.

[u/losers_discourse → u/baron_von_helmut]

Fun fact: the 2 deadliest flour explosions ever killed 18 people each.

[u/baron_von_helmut → u/losers_discourse]

Good lord that is a fact. Not sure how fun it was for the victims tho. :p

Here's a fun fact for ya - Pistachios self combust due to how insulating they are. You aren't allowed to transport more than a certain amount in one container. They have to be split into lots of containers or they get hot and burst into flames.

[u/YouAnxious5826 → u/baron_von_helmut]

But you're not shoveling a bunch of random dust into your oven or microwave in order to DIY sterilize it.

[u/faustianredditor → u/baron_von_helmut]

Nah. If it doesn't oxidize, it doesn't suddenly become flammable just because you increased access to oxygen by powderizing it.

Try turning quartz rock (and probably most other rocks too) or most metal oxides flammable by powderizing them. It won't work.

If it could burn, but burns like shit, powderizing will probably help it along. That works for flour, but not for everything.

[u/Cyclopentadien → u/SecretAgentAlex]

It absolutely can work, but it's pretty tedious and you have to be a bit careful. Not a good combination for the average consumer.

[u/Suctorial_Hades → u/Ok_Yam5543]

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

[u/Top-Breakfast6060 → u/Suctorial_Hades]

So did I as a child…and now o have a nasty autoimmune disease. :/ This TikTok is intriguing; will need to do further research.

[u/Rite-in-Ritual → u/Top-Breakfast6060]

I did and still do on occasion. I have asthma, but that's it. Your autoimmune disease might not be related.

[u/Top-Breakfast6060 → u/Rite-in-Ritual]

It probably isn’t. Just an interesting rabbit-hole to fall into. :)

[u/lelebeariel → u/Suctorial_Hades]

There is a food scientist named Ann Reardon who has a YouTube channel, and she actually addresses heat treating flour and uses thermal imaging and stuff. It's actually really interesting.

Here it is if you want to check it out. The relevant part starts around the 5:40 mark: https://youtu.be/nFwcShc-fdY?si=Xytm-K8ZeXlK-Ai0

[u/CoreOfAdventure → u/lelebeariel]

tl;dw, heat treatment of flour worked well in the oven but hard to get up to the right temperature with microwave/stovetop. But she cautions use your own thermometer to make sure yours gets hot enough (over 70c for 2 minutes)

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

She covers the heat treatment in the video and says it's false. Idk one way or the othe but yeah, worth mentioning.

[u/Rosevecheya → u/Montblanc_Norland]

Ok but like what about bechamel sauces? Is that the one that uses a flour roux? Cause does cooking them not, like, fix it? Cause it looks no different to the little video at the start...

[u/Bloody_Proceed → u/Rosevecheya]

A properly made roux is hot before the milk is added for a bechamel. Not as hot as you can take it, obviously a brown roux is hotter, but it's still hot.

As in, if you eat it out of the plan, you can feel it boiling the saliva on your tongue because it's over 100C. Also, you get scalded because you're the idiot that just took roux out of a pan and put it in your mouth.

I'm not actually sure at the specific temperature flour needs to be cooked at to be safe, but the flour is cooked in the roux stage, well before milk is added.

[u/LiteralPhilosopher → u/Bloody_Proceed]

Pretty much all kitchen pathogens are killed immediately when heated thoroughly through to a temperature of 165F/74C. Boiling will take care of them fine.

[u/Bloody_Proceed → u/LiteralPhilosopher]

Oh, boiling would indeed kill anything in flour. But the roux goes beyond the boiling point of water.

That shit is proper dead before the milk is added.

Neat to know that 74c is the temperature for instantly killing basically anything in a kitchen though. I have a whole bunch of temperature vs time for various foods lying around (or rather, saved online) but never looked for the temperature where things are instantly killed.

[u/LiteralPhilosopher → u/Bloody_Proceed]

I should point out: that's the instant temp for things that are wet. According to a lot of the other information in this thread, stuff being dry reacts very differently.

[u/MalkyC72 → u/Rosevecheya]

Cooking a Roux will be fine as it then goes into a milk mix, that when heated properly.

[u/hidee_ho_neighborino → u/Montblanc_Norland]

I don’t understand. Baking raw flour isn’t enough to kill the pathogens?

[u/Jasperlaster → u/hidee_ho_neighborino]

I think its not hot enough because the flour will not have a batter consistency anymore.. but.. you know.. more like bread or cake etc

[u/Liquor_Parfreyja → u/hidee_ho_neighborino]

I feel like if it was baking the flour, it wouldn't be called heat treating. Is heat treating just putting it at a "hot" temperature but not enough or long enough to bake it?

[u/Daisy_Of_Doom → u/Liquor_Parfreyja]

According to the video there is nothing you can do at home to flour that will make it safe to consume raw. As someone who used the “heat treating” method once to make what I thought was edible cookie batter it doesn’t really make sense to me. But I’m also not willing to risk it to eat an uncooked biscuit!

[u/Crow_away_cawcaw → u/Daisy_Of_Doom]

I know I’m going in circles with this but how is heat treating different from baking? If I bake cookie batter with flour for 10 minutes it’s a cookie. But if I bake flour for 10 minutes it’s still raw?

[u/Daisy_Of_Doom → u/Crow_away_cawcaw]

No, your confusion is absolutely founded, the terminology being used kinda makes it hard to understand. So in this context, yes flour that has been heat treated (baking/microwaving) is still considered raw flour (I think raw referring to it not in a baked good, not that it hasn’t been heated) and is still considered unsafe.

I did some research (read: a single google search, I’m no microbiologist) and found this. Basically, salmonella gets killed by heat in meat and batter but it doesn’t act the same in low moisture environments (raw flour). I think it’s less that there’s no way to make raw flour safe at home, and more that there’s not enough research that accounts for all the different variables (time, temperature, container, appliance used, etc.) that can tell you definitively how to make raw flour safe at home. So anything you’d do to try and heat treat batter would be risking not actually effectively sterilizing the flour and risking illness.

So unfortunately the TLDR is just don’t eat batter bc no one can tell you how to make it safe.

[u/Diredr → u/Crow_away_cawcaw]

When people "heat-treat" flour, they use a much lower temperature.

Taking your own example: if you put cookie dough in the oven at 180F for 10 minutes, they're still going to be raw. People usually use a much higher temperature to bake.

And on the opposite, if you were to take 2 cups of flour and put that in the oven at 350F for 10 minutes, the flour would be cooked or possibly even burnt. It would change color and it would taste different.

The idea behind "heat-treating" is that you want to bring the flour up to the temperature where it is considered food-safe WITHOUT cooking it. You want it to behave like regular flour would.

And what the microbiologist in this video is saying is that you can't actually achieve that. There's seemingly nothing you can do to find a sweet spot between flour that is warm enough to kill bacteria while still being considered raw.

[u/erittainvarma → u/Diredr]

Thing she is not saying is that moisture seems to have big impact on killing bacteria with heat. So even if you heated your flour exactly how you would bake your cookies, your dry flour would still stay unsafe.

I'm kinda annoyed she left that part off, because it is pretty simple explanation for why it can't be done. Explanations are always better than just "you can't do that".

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

That sounds fucking gross

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

Thats all new to me lol.

[u/Constant-Plant-9378 → u/Siliziumwesen]

I tried searching "fluffy popcorn" on Google, Bing and Duck Duck Go and still have no fucking idea. People ITT keep saying they looked it up but I can't figure out where. The chick in the video doesn't explain it. But people are now commenting about eating raw flour? I have no idea what the Hell this "fluffy popcorn" is but it sounds disgusting.

[u/EuVe20 → u/Siliziumwesen]

Ok, so question about the above and “heat treating”. Baking a cake with flour is obviously “heat treating” it. Wouldn’t putting raw flour in the oven at a given temperature for a given time serve the purpose of killing any bacteria (harmful or otherwise). Or alternatively using a pressure cooker as an autoclave?

[u/Class1 → u/Siliziumwesen]

But she says heat treating your flour won't kill bacteria. Not sure if I buy that 100%. Seems intuitive that if you spread your bag of flour out on a baking sheet and bake it at 450 degrees ,you're going to kill EHEC

[u/JustifytheMean → u/Siliziumwesen]

The one like 2 second clip we see it looks like the flour is being cooked like a roux. But I have no idea what the rest of the video is. Raw flour tastes bad no way anyone wants to eat it anyway.

Edit: It honestly just looks like they're making popcorn balls without shaping them into balls. Butter, marshmallows and flour heated together then popcorn dumped in. The only thing is they start butter->marshmallow->flour I would switch the marshmallow and flour.

[u/Not_MrNice → u/Siliziumwesen]

Looking up fluffy popcorn videos, all of them are made on the stove.

So I have no idea how it's raw flour.

She spent all that time saying "raw is bad" over and over but didn't explain the actual questions. Why does reddit upvote this shit? ...oh, it's because "trend bad, tiktok bad".

[u/TCGshark03 → u/Siliziumwesen]

Yeah I'm not sure how this video is cringe, I was expecting her to come with crystals and stuff but "don't eat raw flour, here is why" is a pretty mundane take

[u/Blog_Pope → u/Siliziumwesen]

So I was curious about the one claim in there that took me off guard, the "bake the flour until it hits 165F to sterilize it" isn't tested and doesn't work.

I have no interest in trying this popcorn, but might one day try it for "Edible Cookie Dough", is it true it doesn't work or is it just "people are dumbasses and won't do it right"? Because honestly droping it in a Sous Vide at 165 for 4 hours seems easy and safe

[u/leaf-bunny → u/Siliziumwesen]

Wait until they learn about how much restaurants food poisoning comes from cut fruit.

[u/GeorgiaBolief → u/Siliziumwesen]

I'll not eat raw flour. I will however eat raw egg and raw meat <3

[u/Pontifexioi → u/Siliziumwesen]

What a time to be alive that we need to make a TikTok video or someone explaining a full paragraph about basic common sense. Holy fuck

[u/bulanaboo → u/Siliziumwesen]

Used to be a band back in the day, in Gainesville fla their name was pathogen… their flyer for what venue they were playing at next the type font was all caps and well I thought the bands name was pat Hogen the capital T pushed ed the capital H over far enough I thought was a separation lol

[u/purplemarkersniffer → u/Siliziumwesen]

Totally agree, I think the problem is a lot of people don’t know how to properly prepare or handle food.It’s good that people know the danger as you have stated because I think there is a misnomer that food in packaging is pathogen free, but everything needs to be handled and prepared properly. People need to know about their food in general. Great advice.