King Arthur and bugs

Hi CB,

I've been using KAF just about exclusively for the past three years but have not found added protein in any bag of flour - so far.

No room in my freezer for flour, so I do place each 5# bag in an individual plastic bag, and keep all my flours in a tightly lidded plastic storage box (I live in a northern state).  My WW and ryes are refrigerated.

I have heard that bay leaves will repel weevils.  Try an Internet search on weevils and flours - you'll find lots of info.

I've also had this conversation with folks who produce flour.

There is always the possibility of bugs coming in with the flour (and anything you have found probably has come in with your flour).  There are many things that reputable millers do to minimize this, but it can and will happen. Since it is unlikely that a live worm survived the milling/packaging process, your new pet is probably the result of an egg hatching in the flour.   Testament to the flour's nutritional value that the thing grew and was healthy.

Of course, it is always wise to store flour carefully so that no additional critters get in. I don't routinely store whole grain flour, because I  mill it fresh when needed, but storage of whole grain flours must take into account delaying rancidity so refrigeration or freezing is often suggested.

I store my white flour in a metal bin in a "Hoosier" cabinet.  It has a sifter at the bottom, so all of my white flour is sifted (Sifting will keep larger bugs from getting into your baked goods.  When you read older recipes they will almost always call for sifting the flour.  Although in some cases this is for volumetric concerns, my sources tell me that mostly it was to eliminate the bugs).  I have not seen any bugs, but I'm sure that an egg or a bug part has gotten into my bread.

Again, this is not a matter of kitchen hygiene (excepting extremes, of course).  Most of the livestock that we find in our flour has come into our homes with the flour itself.

Some people have a deep horror about insects, but they are an important part of the natural world.  While some carry significant diseases, the ones that we commonly find in our flour do not.

Yes, freezing the flour will kill any insects. It won't remove them, though - only sifting or "picking" will do that. The difference between a dead bug in flour and a live bug in flour is lost on me - they will all be dead after the loaf is baked.  While I do store my flours and grains carefully and I sift my white flour as a matter of course,  I consider the whole process and don't worry much about the insects that get carried in on the flour.

I do realize that my view comes from a place of living closer to the natural world than some folks do, but I hope that I provide a more realistic perspective.

Happy Baking!

I have had an infestation of the mealy bugs, larvae, moths, whatever in many of my dry staples and crackers.  I have resorted to enclosing everything of this nature in plastic zippered bags.  I routinely freeze rice, whole grain flours, and other items that might go rancid or have these critters or their eggs.

I think the most probable source of the critters is the wholesale dealer or the grocery store.  I have seen them in bags of dried grains or beans in the store.  I have not experienced them in King Arthur flours and that is my prefered brand.

Once you get an infestation, it is the devil to pay getting rid of them!

Ford  (Raleigh, NC)

Yeah, there are sometimes bugs in flour and this is almost a good thing - it means your flour is nutritious and the bugs are enjoying it!

Just throw the bug outside and continue using your flour, there's no problem with it.

To avoid an infestation just keep everything in sealed bags and containers so bugs can't escape and get into other things.  I've never once had a problem with this but it might vary by area.

I am new to bread baking with just a few months under my belt although I have been baking with flour for years; so maybe I'm not relaxed and experienced enough to take this news with a yawn. My response is "GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

If I found a worm in my flour I would toss it - otherwise I'd be forever thinking about it. That's just me.

So that makes me the last to know, not you :-)

I put bay leaves in my flour, in packets of pasta, cornmeal, rice, etc., even crackers, and I scatter bay leaves in the pantry where food is stored.  We haven't been invaded by moths in ages.  If I found bugs in a newly bought bag of flour, I'd take it back to the store.

I take each 5# of flour and run it in the microwave for 1 minute;then I freeze it for a week . Then I add it to rest of the flour.

Al

Back in college days, I lived in a house with a communal kitchen that went through huge volumes of flour and for convenience kept the flour in some large metal cans off to one side of the cooking area. Every time somebody borrowed a car, they'd go buy another 50# sack of flour and dump it in the can right on top of the old flour. And foodstuffs were cheaper if one prowled the farmer's market around closing time and bought stuff that was starting to spoil. On top of all that, thirty different people used the kitchen, and most of them didn't clean up very well. Talk about big major horrible bug infestations! After that, anything else is "good".

What I do now is when unpacking the groceries, routinely put every single sack and box in its own zippered plastic bag and seal them all. And I especially avoid "mixing" anything new into any old container. When, even so, a bug appears once every year or two, I use a tablespoon to pick out the bug and all the surrounding flour and pitch the whole thing down the garbage disposal.

I wasn't always quite as careful, but when my cream of wheat and oatmeal started to move on their own, I began taking kitchen bugs more seriously.

(I once for some reason after baking loosely rolled up my slightly moist couche without shaking it out and stuck it in the warm spot behind the refrigerator. It took just a few days to hatch and start culturing a bunch of worms. I won't do that again.)

It does happen on occasion, lucky that it's rare.  Even with high quality millers like KAF and I would venture to guess that it might happen more with the organic millers since they aren't gassing our flours or chemically treating the wheat at the mill. 

In cheap flour brands, growers treat the seeds with chemicals to ward off pests, then the plants are sprayed before they are harvested and the grains are again deluged during storage.  So most likely your cheaper flours, could even be more bug free than the organics. 

To be honest, I'd rather eat a bug than some of the chemicals they put on cheap flour. 

I keep all my flours stored outside the fridge in the Oxo Pop-up containers to keep any new bugs from getting in and have had none at all.  The other flours (WW and rye and semolina) in the fridge on their own shelf - again none at all.   I must live right.