Blog – Flour Isn’t as Safe as It Used to Be. Here’s What Cottage Bakers Need to Know And Why You Should Be Tracking Ingredient Lot Numbers

June 15, 2026

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I remember the flour recalls.

Between 2016 and 2019, I kept seeing headlines that stopped me in my tracks. It snapped me right back into watching the food industry again, even though I had stepped back from it follow a different path. I started following every recall resource I could find. Because flour wasn’t supposed to do that. Many other foods soared in recalls as well. What…..was going on?

Why flour was considered safe

Pathogens need moisture to survive. Flour is about as dry as it gets. For a long time, that logic held. Then it didn’t.

What changed

I don’t think there’s one single answer, I think it’s several things that quietly compounded. Soil depletion. Tainted irrigation from agricultural runoff and feedlots. Then COVID hit manufacturing hard: reduced staff, slowed inspections, stretched supply chains. The conditions that normally catch problems before they reach consumers were under enormous strain.

The recalls during and after COVID were significant. What they showed us is that when multiple weak points line up, from field to mill to the bag on your shelf, something previously considered safe stops being safe.

Where things stand now

Many flour millers responded. Thermal and hydrothermal treatments can kill pathogens before flour reaches you, and a number of mills have adopted them. But not all have, and there’s no requirement to disclose it. “Ready to eat flour” on a label tells you nothing about whether that step happened.

Treat flour as a risk ingredient. Not extreme risk, but risk worth accounting for.

Where this matters most for cottage bakers

Two situations in particular: Ready-to-eat applications, edible cookie dough, dough sold or gifted as-is, anything that won’t be baked before someone eats it. Some brands sell flour specifically labeled heat-treated and ready-to-eat. If your product skips the oven, that label matters.

Cold craft items, flour-based play clay, ornaments, sensory dough. These get handled by kids, most of the time, ends up in mouths, and never get cooked. Same risk applies.

On home heat treating

You may have seen advice suggesting you can heat-treat flour yourself in the oven or microwave. The FDA and food scientists at Purdue University advise against relying on this. The problem is consistency, it’s very difficult to heat a dry powder evenly throughout, which means you can’t be confident pathogens are eliminated across the whole batch.(1) If your recipe requires heat-treated flour, purchase flour that’s been commercially treated and labeled as such.

The bigger picture

Most baked goods are perfectly safe, baking temperatures are more than enough to eliminate pathogens. This is about the edges. The products where flour doesn’t get cooked. The customers who trust that what you hand them is safe.

Knowing what’s changed in the food supply, and adjusting accordingly, is part of running a thoughtful operation. Whether you’re at a farmers market or baking at your kitchen table.

My best to you always,