General Mills, which on the last day of May recalled tons of flour produced and sold under the Gold Medal, Wondra, and Signature Kitchens brands, today expanded its recall to include additional flour produced last fall.
Flour Recall Expanded as Outbreak Case Count Grows
On the first day of July, as the company “continues to collaborate with health officials to investigate a multistate outbreak of E. coli O121,” the recall was expanded to include flour “made earlier in the fall that may still be in consumers’ pantries.”
“The recall is being expanded due to a newly-reported illness that appears to have stemmed from the consumption of raw dough or batter linked to flour produced last fall,” the press release posted to the FDA website stated.
In late June, the FDA isolated the outbreak strain of E. coli from flour not initially included in the recall. The expansion of the recall was in result to these laboratory results.
Yesterday, the FDA issued guidance advising consumers not to consume any raw products made with flour, such as cookie, tortilla, pizza, or other dough.
42 Now Infected in Multistate E. coli Outbreak Linked to General Mills Flour
The CDC also issued an outbreak update, announcing that four additional individuals had contracted confirmed outbreak cases of E. coli O121, the strain of bacteria associated with the ongoing outbreak tied to General Mills flour.
One of the confirmed cases is located in Indiana, a state that previously had not confirmed any outbreak cases.
According to the update, STEC (Shiga toxin-producing E. coli) O121 has now been isolated from flour produced by General Mills in homes of ill people located in Arizona, Colorado, and Oklahoma.
The new cases bring the total number of cases to 42, spread across 21 different US states. Of the 42 ill, eleven cases required hospitalization. To this point, no confirmed case has been associated with E. coli-linked kidney failure, and no fatalities have been reported.
