Kitchen

[SharkE]

Thanks for contacting us here at King Arthur Baking Company.

This can be a tricky one! Bugs can move into flour at many points in its journey from mill to home kitchen. We do takes steps to ensure that no bugs hitch a ride in the mill, but once it is in transit and stored by various warehouses/grocery stores, they can move in.

To combat the bug issues, there are two main angles of attack. The first is to transfer every flour and dry grain you have (rice, breakfast cereal, rolled oats, etc.) to airtight containers with rubber seals. Tight rubber seals are the only way to keep bugs from moving between dry goods. The other is to freeze every grain and dry good that comes into your kitchen for at least 48 hours. This will kill any potential bugs/eggs that may be hitching a ride in on your dry goods.

Please let us know if we can answer any additional questions or assist you further.

Kind regards,

[yamma024]

Even if you freeze for 48 hours to kill the bugs that hitched a ride, they are still in the flour.   They are dead but still there.  Hmm

[Estellee]

I don't think I will buy flour ever again, lol

[Trailrun23]

Sounds like an ad for Lock & Lock! I do keep everything like rice, flour, cereal, etc. in them, so no bug worries. Wish they made some L&L big enough for my 45lb bag of.birdseed. 

[yamma024]

@Trailrun23  LocknLock does have an 88 cup XXL container with double handles.  K51998  $34.40

[scruffsmom]

Put some bay leaves in your flour.

[Sooner]

Pesticides or bugs?  What's for dinner! 

[MJDinVegas]

Hi, @SharkE !  When we lived in Hawaii, we had a horrible problem with bugs in flour, so much so that I stored it bagged in the freezer; warm and more humid climate.  I think it's actually bug eggs that are in the flour and under the right temperature and humidity conditions they flourish, end up hatching and being big black specks in the flour.

[gardenman]

Flour packaging is part of the problem. The paper packaging makes it easy for some flour to leak out on store or warehouse shelves and create a pathway for bugs to get into the flour. If flour was sold in airtight plastic bags, many of the bug problems would be solved. We store it in airtight plastic and glass containers after buying it, so packaging it in plastic seems doable.

[RNbynite]

Lock n Lock doesn't solve the problem of eggs potentially already existing in grain products.........if they are there they will hatch under certain conditions. There may be larvae in some products that one may not notice. Therefore the best antidote is freezing the product. My thinking is that the eggs are likely impossible to avoid, but freezing will kill them......the longer the product sits on the shelf the greater the opportunity for eggs to hatch.