I was just about to sit down and eat a nice big bowl of fresh flour for lunch, but now I know better than to eat it raw.

It takes a lot longer, but at least I will live to eat, another day.

I don't have time to bake, so I've been eating raw flour for 30 years and nothing bad has happened to me.

Flour, regardless of the brand, can contain bacteria that cause disease. In 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local officials, investigated an outbreak of infections that illustrated the dangers of eating raw dough. Dozens of people across the country were sickened by a strain of bacteria called Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O121.

The investigation found that raw dough eaten or handled by some of the patients was made with flour found in subsequent tests by the FDA to have the same bacterium that was making people sick. Ten million pounds of flour were recalled, including unbleached, all-purpose, and self-rising varieties.

Some of the recalled flours had been sold to restaurants that allow children to play with dough made from the raw flour while waiting for their meals. CDC advises restaurants not to give customers raw dough.

Why Flour?

People often understand the dangers of eating raw dough due to the presence of raw eggs and the associated risk with Salmonella. However, consumers should be aware that there are additional risks associated with the consumption of raw dough, such as particularly harmful strains of E. coli in a product like flour.
“Flour is derived from a grain that comes directly from the field and typically is not treated to kill bacteria,” says Leslie Smoot, Ph.D., a senior advisor in FDA’s Office of Food Safety and a specialist in the microbiological safety of processed foods. So if an animal heeds the call of nature in the field, bacteria from the animal waste could contaminate the grain, which is then harvested and milled into flour.

https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm508450.htm

But if they are going to give a warning like that, shouldn't they say eating raw flour could be harmful? Otherwise the dummies who need the warning might be tempted to eat it any way.

I've been eating silica gel for decades too. Darwin has not caught me yet.

Basically, I'd take a small handful of grains from ears in the field and start chewing. Once everything else was broken down and swallowed, pure, chewy gluten remained.

Especially cookie dough.

They pasteurize the dough for that.

So now it's the flour. Okay.

if I eat the raw dough I don't make it to the baking part.

Are we as a nation that damn stupid?

The Tibetans call it Tsampa

Tsampa or Tsamba (Tibetan: རྩམ་པ་, Wylie: rtsam pa; Nepali: साम्पा; Chinese: 糌粑; pinyin: zānbā is a Tibetan and Himalayan Nepalese staple foodstuff, particularly prominent in the central part of the region. It is roasted flour, usually barley flour and sometimes also wheat flour.