Really? I thought. Who 'sneaks a taste' of raw flour?
In our ever litigious society, companies have to be prepared -- warning you that coffee is hot, that lawn mowers shouldn't be used as hedge trimmers, and that plastic bags aren't toys.
But do people really eat raw flour? Remembering reading about a condition called pica in which some people consume dry laundry starch, I asked Mr. Google.
Sure enough--
Uncooked starch is another very commonly craved item. This can take the form of corn starch, uncooked rice, raw tubers and raw flour. This is called amylophagy. Other non-food items frequently craved include dry powdery substances like baby powder, ash, chalkboard chalk, baking powder and charcoal.
I can't even imagine a mouthful of any of these . . . but maybe that warning isn't as silly as it seemed.
Further investigation led to information on the dangers of consuming raw cookie dough or cake batter--which contain, of course, raw flour. Which may contain bacteria (which will be killed by cooking.) Even a small taste of uncooked dough or batter could be particularly bad for young children or folks with compromised immune systems.
Yikes and dang! I've never been into raw cookie dough the way some folks are but I've licked many a spoon that
had cake batter on it.
Nevermore.
Sorry for this white background, I posted this late last night and didn't realize it was like this. And this morning I have Josie coming and don't have time to fix it. Arrgh!
6 comments:
I have consumed raw flour in my life -- when it was mixed and rolled before being baked.
I never understood eating raw batter but I must admit that my kids ate a lot of cookie dough during their childhood...
But cookie dough is DELICIOUS! If you do like raw dough and don't want to give it up, heat up your flour in a microwave safe or oven safe bowl to 160 degrees F. It won't affect the taste of the final product.
I've definitely eaten more than a ton of raw cookie dough in my lifetime, not quite as much dirt as they say. Why do you think someone sells cookie dough ice cream! Of course their dough must meet lots of standards, without raw eggs or flour, I assume. Give Josie a hi from the internet, if you can figure out how to explain that to her!
People eat strange things. Not sure if it's still a big problem, but when I was a young nurse, we had a problem with pregnant women, especially black women, eating clay from the river banks. It was apparently a cultural thing passed down from mother to daughter. The clay inhibited absorption of iron and the women would become extremely anemic. It was a hard habit to break.
How weird. I too have licked the dough off many a baking spoon. Delicious! But raw flour? Or any of the other culprits? Not really. I know of only one creature who went for chalk: the big bad wolf, who wanted to smooth and soften his voice, Little Red riding Hood having such great trouble to recognise him for the baddie he was.
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