The answer is that you cannot. The only workaround I can think of it to add an `account` metadata: $query = new EntityFieldQuery; $result = $query ->entityCondition('entity_type', 'node') ->entityCondition('bundle', 'foo') ->fieldCondition('custom_id', 'value', $custom_id) ->addMetaData('account', user_load(1)) ->execute(); EDIT: a `DANGEROUS_ACCESS_CHECK_OPT_OUT` option has been added as part of the Drupal 7.15 security release.