Allergies and Flour-based Packaged Mixes

There is an article on Snopes.com about toxic mold developing in out dated pancake mixes that everyone should be aware of. Especially people that have allergies, or the parents of children with allergies, no matter what their ages are.

With children being out of school and people vacationing, it's a good time to alert people to the potential killer this mold can be for people with allergies. Many of you may have heard of, or read the Snopes report, or read it somewhere before. If that's the case, then just use this as a reminder to check the expiration dates on all your foods, particularly your flour based mixes. While you are at it, check out your medicine cabinet also for expiration dates. If you have someone with allergies, this could be a matter of life and death for them. Replacing food stuffs and out dated medications is cheap in comparison to someone's hospitalization or loss of life.

In the Snopes report, there is a letter to "Dear Abby" that would be good to read. I think the lady that wrote it kind of contradicted herself in the first sentence or two, by saying her "healthy" son and then giving him his allergy medication. But what she did was right in giving her son his medication when he started having trouble breathing. Think I would have called 911 to, even though her husband was an EMT and Firefighter. Better to be on the safe side. They took a chance on not having any backup with oxygen if the steam hadn't worked.

The article also says pancake mix that is over the expiration date is not in itself a problem, providing that the open mix has been properly taken care of. It needs to be kept as air tight as possible. Since I live in Florida, where humidity is a big factor, I have gotten in the habit of putting my dry goods in the refrigerator. Flour based products, sugar, etc. Beans, rice and pasta seem to do ok, but if opened, I put them in a ziplock bag or container that is sealed. By storing your flour and flour based mixes in the refrigerator, this also stops these products from getting weevils. Those little black crawly things that get into flour at times. Another potential health hazard.

I would like to mention another product that could very well be a problem because it to contains grains, like flour and flour based mixes. Cereal. I'm not a big cereal fan, but buy it occasionally. This needs to be treated like your flour mixes to. I've opened some cereal and it just tastes musty. Not only that, it's soggy and not crisp like it should be.

Be CAUTIOUS! If food has any kind of funny taste to it, throw it out! Don't take a chance with it. Better to toss a few bucks than take a chance on something that can really make you sick, or worse.