Just double checking: this is chaff, right?

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foodslut on 21 May 2025 at 07:00

Been a while since I last posted - wanted to get back into sharing bread info again.

I'm a big fan of some locally-grown-and-milled flour, Brule Creek Farms, especially their whole wheat (stone milled, hard red spring). I've been using the flour for more than 7-8 years or so, if not longer, but lately, I'm seeing more of this kind of stuff in it (graph paper is 1/4 inch grid):

I'm about 85% sure it's just chaff, given it doesn't look like insect or other living-being parts, but just wanted to double-check with the Baking Borg Mind.

Also, any hints re:  how to get rid of JUST these?  Never been a problem re:  food safety or aesthetics, but more out of curiosity.  Sifting the flour pulls out all the bran as well as these guys.

Thanks!

That you are seeing this in the flour is somewhat concerning.  Chaff should have been removed before the grain was milled into flour.  I would expect that whatever chaff fragments manage to slip through the cleaning process (and it's entirely possible that a few bits do) would be ground to the same particle size as the rest of the flour.  That these much larger fragments are showing up in the flour suggests that there may be some sort of contamination happening between the milling and the packaging steps.  

Have you contacted Brule about this?  If they aren't yet aware that there's a (potential) problem, they might appreciate a heads up from a loyal customer like you.

As to getting rid of them, a screen or sieve whose mesh is larger than the flour granules and smaller than the chaff fragments should do the trick.

Paul

That would be returned ASAP nothing like that should be appearing in any flour and definitely not just sifted out. I’m certain they will be concerned as well. I have home milled for a number of years grains from Breadtopia and Barton Springs and have never found debris. 

Home miller weighing in. I rarely see any sort of debris in the bags of whole wheat berries we get, but once in a while something makes it through the cleaning process. This looks different than any chaff or husks I have seen. Can't help but wonder if it is some sort of manufacturing debris..... overheated paper from their bagging/sealing or ?? Would definitely reach out to them. You may not be the only one to make the discovery. 

 

 

 

But it is light colored and thin like paper. That looks like stalk or stems and couldn’t have made it through the milling process. It might not be protein but could be high in fiber!

 

... sent some pix of the debris in question to the producer.  I've been a customer since, literally, before he set up shop, and has taken previous quality issues seriously in the past, so I'll let you all know what happens next.  Thanks, again, for the advice.