Read the full article here:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxin...ancake.asp

1st Story: I recently made a batch of pancakes for my healthy 14-year-old son, using a mix that was in our pantry. He said that they tasted "funny," but ate them anyway. About 10 minutes later, he began having difficulty breathing and his lips began turning purple.

I gave him his allergy pill, had him sit on the sofa and told him to relax. He was wheezing while inhaling and exhaling. My husband, a volunteer firefighter and EMT, heated up some water, and we had my son lean over the water so the steam could clear his chest and sinuses. Soon, his breathing became more regular and his lips returned to a more normal color. We checked the date on the box of pancake mix and, to my dismay, found it was very outdated.

As a reference librarian at an academic institution, I have the ability to search through many research databases. I did just that, and found an article the next day that mentioned a 19-year-old male DYING after eating pancakes made with outdated mix.

Apparently, the mold that forms in old pancake mix can be toxic! When we told our friends about my son's close call, we were surprised at the number of people who mentioned that they should check their own pancake mix since they don't use it often, or they had purchased it some time ago.

With so many people shopping at warehouse-type stores and buying large sizes of pancake mix, I hope your readers will take the time to check the expiration date on their boxes. ______________________________________________

2nd Story: In 2001, two pathologists practicing in Charleston, South Carolina, reported on an unnamed 19-year-old who died in such a manner.

While home on vacation from college, the victim, a young man with a history of allergies (including mold), polished off two pancakes made from a packaged mix that had sat open in a kitchen cabinet for about two years — even though his two friends stopped eating their portions, complaining that the griddlecakes tasted like rubbing alcohol.

Very quickly thereafter, while watching television, the ill-fated collegian experienced shortness of breath that was not relieved by his inhaler. He asked his friends to take him to a clinic not far from the home, and he was reported to have turned a bit blue from lack of oxygen (i.e., became cyanotic) during the ride.

While he did manage to walk into the clinic on his own, once inside he suddenly collapsed in cardiopulmonary arrest. He failed to respond to resuscitative efforts and was pronounced dead. ______________________________________________________________

3rd Story: A student at HBHS (high school) had pancakes this week and it almost became fatal. His Mom (registered nurse) made him pancakes, dropped him off at school and headed to play tennis.

She never takes her cell phone on the court but did this time and her son called to say he was having trouble breathing. She told him to go to the nurse immediately and proceeded to call school and alert the nurse.

The nurse called the paramedics and they were there in 3 minutes and worked on the boy all the way to the hospital. He came so close to dying. Evidently this is more common then I ever knew.

Check the expiration dates on packages like pancakes and cake mixes that have yeast which over time develop spores. Apparently, the mold that forms in old mixes can be toxic!

Play it safe and throw out all expired pancake mix, brownie mix, Bisquick, cake & cookie mix.

For mold to gain access to a food product, the foodstuff has to be exposed to its spores. Pancake mix cocooned in an unbleached wax paper, plastic, or a foil pouch within its outer packaging wouldn't have this contact and should still be safe no matter how old it gets.

However, mix sold unpouched in cardboard boxes or paper sacks would likely be at risk even if the box or sack hadn't previously been opened, because such packaging would not necessarily keep dampness out, and mold thrives in damp environments.

We make all that stuff from scratch. It's cheaper and apparently much safer!

FWIW, although Yoko-girl's story reads in the 1st person, this is copied & pasted from the Snopes website she referenced. Fortunately, this is not her own story.

While snopes assesses the story to be true, it is much over-hyped. You are FAR more likely to choke on the sausage or OJ with your pancakes than to have a reaction to mold in the mix. So chew carefully!

As snopes says, anything properly stored (i.e., wrapped tight) will NOT grow mold. Therefore, it's only OPENED & UNSEALED mix that is prone to problems. NOT new product from the commissary, even if it's expired. Simply being out of date is not the hazard; it's being open to contaminants & mold that pose a possible danger.

I'm only replying cuz I get jacked up about all the supposed threats we are supposed to watch out for: Hypodermic needles in movie theater seats, flashing your lights at cars on the highway, now expired flapjack mix. If we heeded all these threats, we'd be bunkered down in our bomb shelter with a safety harness, life jacket, steel-toed boots, and hard hat waiting for the next crisis. The way I view life is: Use common sense, don't step in front of a moving car, and everything else is just noise. Out of billions of people who have roamed this earth, maybe 2 are known to have suffered from moldy pancake mix. There are bigger things to worry about.

My mother in law sends tons of crap similar to that every day- and she'll send the same stupid, FAKE, half-truth, photoshopped BS story SEVERAL times a year. Drives me insane.

Seriously- a shark did not jump 30 feet out of the water and pull down a helicopter!  Virginia is NOT taxing you an extra 2000% on your health insurance!  They didn't remove "so help me God" from the WW2 memorial- because Roosevelt never said it in that part of the speech! 

Drives me nuts!

Hahaha....it's funny you should mention that Tirani - my mother was the one who sent me this article! 

I do agree that some things can be blown way outta proportion.  I think there is some validity to this article though (especially w/ people who have allergies to mold).  I had a a childhood friend get sick from mold years ago.  I also remember a time when I had pancakes outta a box and felt ill afterwards.  I never put two and two together until now.  After reading this article, I realized I probably got sick from the pancakes I ate.  Granted, the box was over a year past the expiration date, but at the time, I didn't think something like that would make me sick....especially since it was cooked.  I think a lot of precautions are taken these days because now most mixes are contained in wax paper inside the box.  I think manufactures made the switch in packaging for a reason......because they knew that the mold was making people sick.   It makes you wonder how many stories like this have gone unreported.