topic Bugs in old flour? in Kitchen

Bugs in old flour?

depglass — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 15:04:08 GMT

I've had a bag of flour in the pantry for a good five years. It was bought on sale with others years ago and never got used. What are the odds this is OK, meaning there are no bugs in it? Pitch?

Re: Bugs in old flour?

LindaSal — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 15:06:49 GMT

Pitch!!! Nothing lasts forever and if you store your flour and use it infrequently, I would suggest to keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I have always done that as parasites can eventually grow as they do in expired spices, have you checked the dates on those lately????

Re: Bugs in old flour?

mom2four0418 — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 15:08:00 GMT

@depglass wrote:
I've had a bag of flour in the pantry for a good five years. It was bought on sale with others years ago and never got used. What are the odds this is OK, meaning there are no bugs in it? Pitch?

Pitch

Re: Bugs in old flour?

Still Raining — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 15:17:39 GMT

As a veteran of many years of third world living, you absolutely must establish if you are infested by weevils. You can do a test of a sample.

Weevils spread like fleas and need to be dealt with.

Up your storage game.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

River Song — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 15:26:15 GMT

White flour lasts one year at room temperature, two years in the refrigerator. Whole wheat flour has a shorter lifespan than white flour. So, after five years at room temperature, your flour is probably rancid. If your flour is still in the paper bag in your pantry and not in an airtight container, you would've known by now whether you had weevils as they will crawl out of the bag and infest your entire pantry.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

Sooner — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 15:43:18 GMT

Any flour this old is rancid. Bugs or no bugs, it is long past it's shelf life.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

SharkE — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 16:01:58 GMT

EWWW people are like my husband he won't throw away empty box, hoarder. Our outside pole barn is full of junk. I keep flour in freezer.

I saw on Inside Edition this young girl who only washes her towels every 5th time she uses. EWWW ! I wash mine after every use. she was so surprised when they showed her under a microscope all the germs and bacteria she was drying herself off with. Geez, lady, do some laundry. LOL

Re: Bugs in old flour?

gardenman — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 16:12:05 GMT

As an aquarium keeper, flour weevils are a good, easy to culture, nutritious, live food for aquarium fish. Put out a bowl of flour and you'll eventually get flour weevils. I have a bowl of flour in my kitchen now hoping flour weevils find it. I had a flour weevil on my pastry board a week or so ago and didn't realize what it was until I'd already killed it. I'm hoping some of his friends find the bowl of flour I have set out for them. Weevils become essentially free, high quality, nutritious live fish food.

I keep my baking flour securely sealed so no weevils, but one had found the flour residue on my pastry board and was eating that before I mistakenly killed it. And as unpleasant as this may sound, flour weevils are edible by humans and even allowed to a certain degree in some prepared foods.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

ValuSkr — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 16:15:22 GMT

What's the best way to dispose of old flour? I've read flour can be explosive and I don't want to cause problems for myself or the garbage collector.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

fthunt — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 16:18:54 GMT

I had bugs in opened box of spaghetti once. Not a big pasta eater.....in fact......I should check my stock again.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

Sweet Caroline 1 — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 16:36:13 GMT

@depglass wrote:
I've had a bag of flour in the pantry for a good five years. It was bought on sale with others years ago and never got used. What are the odds this is OK, meaning there are no bugs in it? Pitch?

Dear @depglass Weevils are already in the dry goods, flour, corn meal etc. Seal these up well and store in the freezer. About four days in the freezer will kill the weevils. There is an expiration date for these items too. Less than a year I think. Go ahead and throw out what you have and clean pantry shelf well.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

Meowingkitty — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:05:30 GMT

@ValuSkr wrote:
What's the best way to dispose of old flour? I've read flour can be explosive and I don't want to cause problems for myself or the garbage collector.

I would put it in a plastic bag, tie it up and put it in a bigger bag for the trash guy. My garbage collector sits in a truck and pushes a button so I don't think he's in danger.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

Harpa — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:08:33 GMT

There's a time to keep and a time to throw away.

Yeah, look who's talking! I've got to pitch pancake flour mix, but it's been hanging around in my refrigerator.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

gardenman — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:24:32 GMT

@ValuSkr wrote:
What's the best way to dispose of old flour? I've read flour can be explosive and I don't want to cause problems for myself or the garbage collector.

You can just throw it out with your regular trash. Flour explosions tend to only occur where large clouds of flour get airborne and then ignite. Bakeries, mills, etc. are the only places you're likely to find flour exploding. It's not so much exploding as it is a whole lot of it catching fire at once and the heat causing the air to expand rapidly creating something of a shock wave. Even in the most dangerous workplaces (large bakeries, mills) flour explosions are very, very rare. Conditions have to be exactly right for it to happen. The flour, dust has to be very dry, evenly distributed in the air at just the right density, and an ignition source nearby. Pretty much anything combustible (sawdust, household dust, grain dust, etc.) can "explode" in this manner under the right conditions. Those conditions won't exist in your trash.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

SharkE — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:38:02 GMT

I throw stuff out before the date couple of months before. Who wants to ruin what your baking with old , outdated, baking powder, baking soda, corn starch, etc.

My sister cleans house (she is beyond spotless) for the rich folk and she says "with all their money they don't go thru their cabinets and pitch nothing". She throws out jello pudding that 's expired yr. ago, marshmallow creme that is old, cake mixes, gravy packets, etc.

People get lazy and don't plug in is what I think. We were raised to be spotless . My sister is beyond clean. Her house is ALWAYS layed out for a photo shoot. She don't even believe in having more then 3 changes of sheets because takes up room top of closet shelf. I just gave to a charity about 8 sheet sets she had a fit "don't accumulate all that junk" LOL

Re: Bugs in old flour?

Puppy Lips — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:53:40 GMT

@SharkE wrote:
EWWW people are like my husband he won't throw away empty box, hoarder. Our outside pole barn is full of junk. I keep flour in freezer.

I saw on Inside Edition this young girl who only washes her towels every 5th time she uses. EWWW ! I wash mine after every use. she was so surprised when they showed her under a microscope all the germs and bacteria she was drying herself off with. Geez, lady, do some laundry. LOL

@SharkE You get a clean bath towel after every shower? That is a lot of laundry. I change our bath towels maybe every 4 days. I wonder what other people do. Many hotels won't give you clean towels every day unless you ask.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

SharkE — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:58:35 GMT

Uh, yeah

Not that I've been on vacation here lately LOL but, the maids bring us in fresh towels and wash cloths daily they have no choice I throw them out in hallway and tell them at the desk to bring up fresh ones.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

froggy — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 18:26:11 GMT

@SharkE wrote:
EWWW people are like my husband he won't throw away empty box, hoarder. Our outside pole barn is full of junk. I keep flour in freezer.

I saw on Inside Edition this young girl who only washes her towels every 5th time she uses. EWWW ! I wash mine after every use. she was so surprised when they showed her under a microscope all the germs and bacteria she was drying herself off with. Geez, lady, do some laundry. LOL

Funny how we are all different. No way am I going to change towels every day. Too much work and too much laundry. Once a week is good enough for us.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

froggy — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 18:29:28 GMT

@ValuSkr wrote:
What's the best way to dispose of old flour? I've read flour can be explosive and I don't want to cause problems for myself or the garbage collector.

I've never heard that. I just throw old flour in the trash.

I just looked it up - apparently explosions can happen when flour particles are suspended in the air. Happens mostle in processing plants.

Re: Bugs in old flour?

January121 — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 18:58:15 GMT

@depglass wrote:
I've had a bag of flour in the pantry for a good five years. It was bought on sale with others years ago and never got used. What are the odds this is OK, meaning there are no bugs in it? Pitch?

@depglass you definitely need to throw that bag of flour in the garbage now!!!! .... don’t even think about it..... I wouldn’t even attempt to open the bag .... it most likely has worms or some other critters inside.