January 30, 2018 - 7:23am
Bugs in the flour
In another thread, I'm talking about which flour to buy. But on a related topic, I read in a different forum about this guy who had just purchased a 50lb bag of flour. He said something like, "Since we are in the middle of a cold snap, I left the bag in my car in sub-freezing weather to kill any bugs."
I've honestly never had a serious bug problem, but there could always be a first time. Is this a good idea? Cold temps are easy to come by here in New England. Does it make sense to leave a fresh 50 lb bag outside? Do the bugs really freeze to death?
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As a far as I know, yes. I’ve placed smaller amounts of flour in my freezer.
Question; what is the shelf life of bread or AP flour? If it lasted a long time I’d consider buying bulk from a specialty mill online. I am under the impression that it would stale, but not sure.
Btw, you might look into storing the flour in a 6 gallon pail with a gamma lid. Best thing I know of. Check them out. https://www.amazon.com/Gamma2-4124-Gamma-Seal-Lid/dp/B00AYVRHCO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1517328627&sr=8-5&keywords=gamma+lid
Dan
I have to admit - that does look pretty cool. What I'm doing now is moving the flour from the large bags into 2-gallon zip log bags, storing them in a typical plastic storage bin and that is in a metal cabinet. I'm pretty sure this will protect it from furry critters, but don't know about the bugs.
The gamma lids have rubber o-ring gaskets. They will seal air tight. They are also very sturdy.
Dan
One other advantage to Gamma lid storage pails. You can place oxygen absorbers in the pail and smother the little beasties. This solution does take a longer time than popping the flour into the freezer for a couple of days, though. I keep my wheat berries in gamma lidded pails.
We had an infestation of pantry moths (Indian Meal Moths). The suggested solution was to freeze all grains, cereals, etc. packaged in paper or cardboard to kill the larvae, eggs, and adults. It's not uncommon for these and other critters to come into the house in such products. For prevention, we now put all these items into the freezer for a couple of days before they go into the pantry. Haven't had any problems in over a year.
Yes, if you buy in bulk it's good idea. Particularly for rye. Even better idea - flour fridge.
store in the fridge in tightly sealed zip lock bags. If you ever get moths in your food storage you will have the devil's own time getting rid of them. You have to take out every single item sealed or not and every spice every item of clothing all of it has to be inspected and everything washed down with dilute bleach solution. If you can't use bleach then white vinegar. They will destroy your clothes as well as eat food and your rugs and upholstery will be at risk as well. They love cotton clothes so don't just inspect wool. They are a terror and can be in foods from Kroger etc as well. It is one reason the grocery stores are SO cold these days. Prevention is definitely the best way to go.
I simply don't have the refrigerator space to store 50 lb of one kind of flour, in addition to the various other types I've always got on hand. I've been storing large quantities of flour for a couple decades and have never had a problem. Doesn't mean I don't want to be careful within reason, but I can't justify purchasing and powering a second refrigerator. Leaving a new bag in the back seat of the car for a couple days while the outside temps are in the teens seems like an easy precaution.
This is a tid-bit. For whole grains bought in bulk (45lb), they gas the bag in order to make sure any critters are put to permanent rest.
I don’t think flour is handled this way. But as I think about this, isn’t it probable the bugs came in from outside the bag after it was sealed? Or not?
Is this only when you buy in bulk or are you also talking about the little flour bags you get at the grocery store? And so after you freeze the little suckers to death...then what? Do you throw the flour away? Please, oh please don't tell me you don't still use the flour with the critters in there and it's just added protein or something like that.
I am a brand newbie to all of this. Turning green...
Yes they are in the little bags from the store, too. The last batch of beasties I brought home came in an off-the-shelf bag from the store. Take a deep breath and be seated. The flour in those bags was milled from whole grain and, chances are, the eggs those bugs hatched from were in the grain from the start. Which means that the bugs that laid those eggs were in the raw grain to start with. It gets worse. For most insects egg laying is fatal...sooo....mummy and daddy's bodies were in the grain and broken apart by the process of moving the grain through the mill. Even in a bug free bag you will have a tiny percentage of 'extraneous' material. We bake bread at temperatures that effectively sterilize all the ingredients.
It's a little like the FDA regulations that say that there can be no more than 0.04% rat feces in food. That means that 0.03% feces is totally acceptable. You're never going to get totally pure and sterile.
This is so totally off-subject, but this all reminds me of a story I heard about the National Parks. When you leave one of the parks, there is a book that you could sign and leave comments about your experience. Someone wrote, "It was nice, but why can't they do something about the insects?"
My mother-in-law (now 80) has for decades put bay leaves in her sealed containers of flour to prevent/kill bugs. She has long bought in bulk (many years ago due to cost necessity). She was raised on a farm in Missouri. Don't know where she learned it, but for 20? years I've kept 2-3 bay leaves in my 10lb AP flour container in the kitchen (changed whenever I remember), and have never had bugs (alive or dead). My whole grains go straight to the freezer after purchase - no bay leaves or bugs ever.
I'll call and ask her about it. She's one of the smartest homemakers (and wonderful women) I know, and has never steered me wrong. I'm 59 and still call to ask her household advice.
The problem is that I constantly lose the bay leaves I put into anything. It's one thing to fish it out of your spaghetti sauce, but it's another to wonder what's in that brownie you just bit into.
Put the leaves in a sachet bag used for cooking. It should be easy to spot the brownie with the drawstring sticking out. That also takes care of any problem with dried leaves breaking up from handling.
I dunno... I make some pretty big brownies. But no, you're right. That's the sensible solution.
Very interesting tip. I googled it just to be sure. I read that even dried bay leaves will work. My sister-in-law has a tree.
Thanks MontBay.
Just called Mom. She learned it from her mother, and is was common knowledge among the area farm wives and discussed in 4-H. She knows of no scientific basis, but says it always has worked for flour and pasta.
I see that others know of this tip and use it too. I like the sachet idea. I've always tried to keep track of the leaves as I scoop and replace any that broke. It's hard enough finding the full number in a pot of soup/stew, right? Always one that hides somewhere and requires surgical exploration while you're trying to serve.