General Mills, Inc.
Outcome
General Mills recalled two-, five-, and ten-pound bags of Gold Medal Unbleached and Bleached All Purpose Flour on April 28, 2023, after FDA's traceback investigation of a multistate Salmonella outbreak identified the company's Kansas City, Missouri production facility as the source.
Details
General Mills (Gold Medal Flour) — Salmonella Outbreak Recall (2023)
Outcome: General Mills recalled all sizes of Gold Medal Unbleached and Bleached All Purpose Flour on April 28, 2023, after FDA's traceback investigation of a multistate Salmonella outbreak identified the company's Kansas City, Missouri production facility as the source; FDA confirmed the outbreak strain in retain product samples collected from the facility.
General Mills, Inc. produces Gold Medal All Purpose Flour at its Kansas City, Missouri production facility — one of the nation's most widely distributed consumer flour brands. In April 2023, CDC and FDA investigated a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections with a shared genomic fingerprint. FDA conducted a traceback investigation that identified a single production facility — the Kansas City General Mills plant — as the common source for flour consumed by ill patients across multiple states.
FDA initiated an inspection of the Kansas City facility and collected retain product samples. Laboratory testing confirmed the outbreak strain of Salmonella in the retained samples. On April 28, 2023, General Mills announced a voluntary nationwide recall of two-, five-, and ten-pound bags of Gold Medal Unbleached All Purpose Flour and Gold Medal Bleached All Purpose Flour — affecting one of the most widely available retail flour products in the United States.
Raw flour is a recognized vehicle for Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 contamination, as it is an agricultural commodity that is not subjected to a kill step during conventional milling. The outbreak and recall underscore the importance of robust environmental monitoring and pathogen control programs in flour milling facilities, particularly given that a significant portion of flour consumers use it in uncooked preparations (raw dough, cookie dough) where no kill step occurs at the consumer level.
Primary Source: Outbreak Investigation of Salmonella: Flour (April 2023) | FDA
How Crucible Prevents This
Raw flour has a documented history of Salmonella and E. coli outbreaks; FDA has issued multiple guidance documents on the hazard. A food safety plan for flour production must include validated controls for pathogen reduction or an explicit kill-step at the point of use. Crucible's DECISIONS log would require the facility to document the basis for any change in the pathogen control strategy — and a session-gate review of open inspection findings would surface any environmental positive or field complaint linking the Kansas City facility to a prior pathogen event before a recall-triggering outbreak occurs.
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