Take a second to check that bag of Pillsbury flour before you bake anything with it.
Hometown Food Company has issued a voluntary recall of roughly 12,245 cases of five-pound bags of Pillsbury Unbleached All Purpose Flour because they may be contaminated with salmonella.
The affected flour was sold by a limited number of retailers and distributors, including Winn-Dixie and Publix, according to an alert sent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Salmonella is bacteria that can cause severe stomach upset and every year makes 1.2 million people sick and kills about 450 people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The lot codes on the recalled products are 8 292, with a "best if used by" date of April 19, 2020 and a UPC item code of 0 5150022241 6; and 8 293 with a "best if used by" date of April 20, 2020 and UPC item code of 0 5150022241 6.
Hometown Food Company urged consumers to either throw out the flour subject to recall or return it to the store where it was purchased. The company is offering replacement coupons for the recalled flour.
The Food and Drug Administration also used the recall as a reminder to people not to eat raw dough when making cookies and other items.
Many cookie recipes often call for raw eggs or flour, which makes it unsafe to eat the raw cookie dough. Raw eggs can carry salmonella, while uncooked flour can carry a variety of disease-causing germs, including E. coli. An outbreak of E. coli traced to raw flour made 63 people sick in 2016.
"Do not taste or eat any raw dough or batter, whether for cookies, tortillas, pizza, biscuits, pancakes, or crafts made with raw flour, such as homemade play dough or holiday ornaments," the CDC states in a list of guidelines.