This Sweet Treat Trending Online Could Actually Be a Recipe for Illness

The new food trend has taken over TikTok. But this sweet treat can be a recipe for illness.

Fluffy popcorn is the viral food trend taking over TikTok this fall. Searching for recipes for fluffy popcorn yields tons of tutorials on how to create the sweet treat. But while there’s no disputing how yummy the latest social media-inspired food trend may look, experts are warning that there is a danger of foodborne illness lurking inside the savory kernels.

The reason the alarm is being sounded is that a typical recipe for fluffy popcorn includes raw cake batter. In one popular video, a TikTok creator combines butter, marshmallows, Funfetti cake mix, popcorn, and sprinkles in a saucepan on the stove. Many other videos show similar recipes, incorporating different versions of these ingredients.

While you can find a few fluffy popcorn tutorials on TikTok that omit the cake mix, it’s important for kids and parents to understand the risk of eating raw flour found in many of the festive recipes people are preparing this Halloween season.

Why Consuming Raw Cake Batter Is Potentially So Risky

As with many viral food trends online, creators on TikTok don’t often cite the potential dangers involved. Just take the glass fruit trend as an example, with kids being scalded by the process of creating the liquid sugar coating at a very high temperature. The viral one-chip challenge is another instance where a child actually died from consuming the extremely spicy snack.

In the case of fluffy popcorn, Mitzi Baum , the CEO of Stop Foodborne Illness, warns that while the flour in cake mix doesn’t look like raw food, most flour is indeed raw. “This means that it hasn’t been treated to kill germs that cause food poisoning,” she tells Parents .

“Uncooked flour and raw eggs may contain bacteria such as Salmonella or E. coli that can make you extremely sick,” Baum also says, adding that in rare cases, death may even occur.

Cherilyn Davis, MD, FAAP, a pediatrician at Elliston Pediatrics , adds that playing with raw cake batter and eating it can be dangerous due to the harmful bacteria that can lead to food poisoning. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea—sometimes with blood in it—fever, and stomachache.

“Salmonella may cause symptoms within a few hours after eating the food, but sometimes it can take several days,” Dr. Davis tells Parents . “Similarly, E. coli can cause symptoms within three to four days after consuming the contaminated food.”

Although anyone can get sick from eating raw flour—kids, older adults, and people with compromised immune systems are especially vulnerable.

“E. coli can cause hemolytic uremia syndrome (HUS) which causes severe kidney injury and loss of kidney function," notes Baum.

Children under the age of 5 are particularly susceptible to HUS.

How To Reduce Your Risk of Foodborne Illness

If you want to avoid the danger of anyone in your family getting sick as you gear up for trick-or-treating and beyond, do not eat raw flour or cookie dough. And, obviously, skip the fluffy popcorn trend—or at least forgo using any form of uncooked cake mix.

Here’s one TikTok fluffy popcorn recipe that goes heavy on the candy instead of using cake mix to sweeten the concoction. Dr. Davis also suggests using marshmallow fluff instead.

In general, Baum advises fully cooking raw food to prevent scary health complications.

“Food needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees fahrenheit to kill off harmful pathogens,” she says.

As Dr. Davis reminds parents, “Popcorn is a choking hazard for children under 4 years old, so be sure to avoid this trend if your child is younger.”

Bottom line: If you’d rather celebrate a healthy Halloween, try another snack!

For more Parents news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Parents .