GOLDEN TEMPLE Durum Atta Flour info
Today I called the distributer of my Golden Temple Durum Atta Flour who is J.M.Smucker Co. in Ohio where I live to ask how I can know how old my flour is. I purchased it at a Greek store near Cleveland. He told me the shelf life of this flour is 15 months and that I can know the year when the flour was milled by looking at the stamped numbers on the front of the bag. The numbers on my bag are 9 267 548 15:18 230. The first number is the last digit of the year it was milled, in my case 2009. He was able to learn that my flour was milled in September of '09 but I don't know how he figured that, maybe from the bar code number that I gave him along with the stamped number. So my flour is good for another 3 months. I'm keeping it in the freezer.
So look for the first stamped number, I would only buy it if the number is 0 for 2010 or now that it's the end of 2010 I think I'll wait till I see 1 for 2011. Maybe I'll go down to Smuckers and see if I can buy it there fresher than a year old. I like using it in a lot of my breads mixed with other flours, gives good flavor.
By the way, it's marked DURUM WHEAT FLOUR & WHEAT BRAN, weather the bran is durum or not I don't know. It is also marked PRODUCT OF CANADA.
Hope this helps anyone shopping for durum to know when it was milled.
weavershouse