I really don't like buying a bag of four that says Con Agra on it, so we stopped by the local mill and bought some locally grown flour. A few weeks later we opened the bag and started to use it and found a live white worm. I know, the one who gets the worm gets one less piece of bacon.
What's the best way to store flour? Is that normal to find critters in the flour?
Hi, Doug, Next time when you bring the flour home put it directly into a glass jar and if you suspect insects put it in your freezer for awhile. I tend to run everything through the freezer if I am unsure of it's age when purchased and we store all of our grains and beans, etc either in five gallon plastic buckets or glass jars. Sometimes I dust a little food grade diatomaceous earth on top and/or a few fresh bay leaves. Sometimes if you buy in paper you can see signs of insect infestation in the glued places on the paper bag and you can avoid bringng them home.
It sounds like moth larvae to me... Food moths. I have had trouble with these when others have given me food. If they develop they will infest the rest of your pantry.
In France they call them food mites and the solution is a sticky fly trap to trap and and levendar oil sachets to repel.
When they don't spray insecticide on the grain before they grind it, eggs can still hatch in your flour.
You can freeze it, you can remove the oxygen like long-term storage guys do, or you can hatch them and then sift them out like the pioneers used to do.
I prefer to buy whole grain and grind it myself as needed. Still get bugs but they are easier for me to deal with.
Like Judith I give my flour a run through the freezer when I bring it home. It goes in for at least 24 hours, but most often it stays there until I need to open a new package. Then it's stored in an airtight container. I haven't had any bug issues since I started doing this.
(Note: let the flour come to room temp before baking with it or it will add considerably to baking time. Learned that the hard way. )
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