Recently, you may have seen videos on social media or recipes on blogs for making fluffy popcorn. Fluffy popcorn is made by first melting butter and marshmallows together. Next, boxed cake mix, most commonly the type with sprinkles or colorings, is stirred into the melted butter-marshmallow mixture. Lastly, popped popcorn is coated with the mixture. The final product is a colorful popcorn treat.
The idea of making and selling fluffy popcorn as a cottage foods product, especially for your customers to give as holiday gifts, is very enticing. But is fluffy popcorn safe?
Raw flour food safety concerns
Flour, including the flour in boxed cake mixes, is a raw product. Grains (wheat, rice, rye, etc) have been milled and processed into flours for baking and cooking. The grains used to make the flour are exposed to microorganisms that are naturally present in the soil and environment. During processing, these flours are not treated to kill any of these microorganisms.
Packaged flour and boxed mixes, like those for cakes, cookies, brownies, pancakes or waffles, will contain a food safety advisory statement on their packaging. The statement may be worded differently depending on the brand, but in general, it communicates to buyers that the flour is a raw ingredient and it should be cooked fully before eating.
The microorganisms most frequently linked to foodborne illness outbreaks from eating raw flour are Salmonella and E. coli. Since 2016, there have been four multistate outbreaks linked to raw flour and mixes containing raw flour. In each of these outbreaks, people were hospitalized with severe symptoms.
Can I treat raw flour at home to make it safe?
You may have heard recommendations to heat raw flour or mixes in the oven or microwave before combining it with other ingredients to make raw flour safe to eat without baking or cooking. This is not a safe or recommended practice. Research has shown that microorganisms, like Salmonella, are resistant to heat impact when the food moisture is low. Raw flour contains very little moisture. If present in the raw flour, the Salmonella is not killed when heated.
The process for making fluffy popcorn does not sufficiently cook the raw flour, and the final product may contain harmful microorganisms that can cause foodborne illness when eaten.
The good news is that when the raw flour is combined with other ingredients that add moisture to the mix, and then the mixture is thoroughly baked or cooked, the microorganisms can be killed. Most baked goods reach an internal temperature of 180 to 210 degrees Fahrenheit during cooking, which is enough to kill both E.coli and Salmonella.
Tips for making a safe holiday-inspired popcorn treat
If you want to make and sell a festive popcorn treat, use these tips to make a safe cottage foods product.
- Avoid bare-hand contact. Popcorn is a ready-to-eat food which means you should wear single-use disposable gloves or use utensils when mixing and packaging.
- Skip the cake mix. Use sprinkles, candies, or food colorings to season the popcorn.
- Popcorn balls are an allowable cottage foods product.
As a reminder, you must make your popcorn and popcorn treats before selling them at a farmers’ market or community event. Cottage foods products cannot be prepared onsite at the market or event.
Have a question you want answered?
Email your questions to the food safety team at [email protected]. It may be featured in this newsletter to benefit all Minnesota cottage foods producers.