Another food storage question for you

[Canada_Mom]

Please pardon my complete ignorance, but for those of you who freeze your flour, I have a few questions.

I used to freeze our flour in ice cream buckets but I found it to be more of a nuisance since we don't buy flour that often. When we do buy, we go through it quickly, even the big bags.

Does freezing it extend the shelf life effectively? For how much longer?? How long can you freeze flour for? What do you use to freeze flour in? How worried should I be about bugs in the our flour? I've been buying for 10+ years now and never even thought of this. :eek:

Also, when your flour comes out of the freezer, do you defrost before using it? For how long?

I feel so silly. I have no clue about flour!

[Lorax]

Whole grain flours go rancid if they are left to long. The same applies to whole grains like brown rice. I don't worry about my white flours, I have them in big glass jars with lids in the cupboard.

To store in the freezer I use glass ball canning jars or ziploc freezer bags. You do not need to defrost to use, but if I'm making bread I either heat the flour up a bit in the microwave or leave it out to come to room temperature. :001_smile:

[Virginia Dawn]

Please pardon my complete ignorance, but for those of you who freeze your flour, I have a few questions.

I used to freeze our flour in ice cream buckets but I found it to be more of a nuisance since we don't buy flour that often. When we do buy, we go through it quickly, even the big bags.

Does freezing it extend the shelf life effectively? For how much longer?? How long can you freeze flour for? What do you use to freeze flour in? How worried should I be about bugs in the our flour? I've been buying for 10+ years now and never even thought of this. :eek:

Also, when your flour comes out of the freezer, do you defrost before using it? For how long?

I feel so silly. I have no clue about flour!

I really don't know the proper answers to your questions, I just freeze flour for the convenience of storing it somewhere where I know it won't get damaged when I have more than I will use quickly. I just put the bag of flour in what ever kind of plastic bags I have available, usually grocery sacks, and tie them tightly shut. I imagine it doesn't make a whole lot of difference how you do it.

[Canada_Mom]

Whole grain flours go rancid if they are left to long. The same applies to whole grains like brown rice.

I didn't know this. We usually eat it fairly quickly. Can someone tell me how long whole wheat flour will keep??

[Janet in Toronto]

Another Canadian mom here....

I lived in Ottawa most of my life and never had any problems with "things" growing in my flour or other staples. Never froze it...never had to. When we moved to Atlanta 6 years ago, all of a sudden I was dealing with pantry moths and other stuff, like rancid flour and rice. I started freezing these kinds of things for a couple of days after bringing it home after reading about this concept somewhere. I assumed I was killing whatever was resident in the food when I bought it.

I don't understand what the difference is, unless it is in the climate or the processing/packaging/storage of food before it gets home. We're back in Canada now and so far, everything seem back to normal. We had AC in both places, used the same kind of storage containers, so maybe it's something in the air down there!

Janet

[magistramom]

We freeze flour to kill any possible larvae that may be in it. We do the same for oatmeal. We bag it up in gallon ziplocks or containers and pop it in until we need to fill the kitchen canister.

[Sara R]

I didn't know this. We usually eat it fairly quickly. Can someone tell me how long whole wheat flour will keep??

It depends on the flour. Freshly ground whole grain flour is different from whole wheat flour sold in the store. I think that in the store they don't have the part of the flour that goes rancid quickly (the germ?) I think it's just the white flour and the bran mixed together so it keeps longer. Freshly ground flour can go rancid within a week or so. I keep mine in the freezer.