Out of Date Flour - Safety

nuatha

Smokemeakipper wrote: »

I've used out of flour lots of times and never had a problem. Though I was led to believe that, like bread mixes, self raising flour gets inactive after long enough. Someone correct me if I'm wrong though.

You're right. Just add a teaspoon of baking powder per 100g, same quantity works if you need self raising flour and only have plain.

Horace

I keep my flour in an airtight box and have now had an open bag for the past two years which is still edible (it shows how rarely I make cakes).

pigpen

weevil bread.. the best kind!

I only bin it if it has been damp..

jammy_dodger

i did read somewhere on here that you can store flour in the freezer , handy if you have room and theres some good offers to stock up on

spike7451

pink_princess wrote: »

It is fine as long as you do not have weevils in it.

Or a mouse!...I bought a bag of plain flour from the CoOp (I needed it to make something & the was no others left) that had been opened & resealed.
So I got it home & used it,put the bag in the cupboard.Next time I opened the cupboard,the was flour over everything & the bag had a mouse sized hole in it!
Eventually caught the mouse humanly (Thanks Daisy cat,you were about as much use at mousing as a chocolate fireguard!:p) & let it go in the garden.

Emuchops

Throw caution to the wind and just eat it. Think of weevils as a bonus from Mother Nature.

BitterAndTwisted

jammy_dodger wrote: »

I did read somewhere on here that you can store flour in the freezer, handy if you have room and there's some good offers to stock up on.

I could be wrong but think people do this to kill off any weevils present, rather than preserving the flour. Plain flour doesn't need anything to preserve it except being kept dry.

marmiterulesok

I've used flour that has been six months out of date and have had no problems.

zippychick

we do have a thread on using up out of date flour -ill merge this later

Zip

NeedWillpower

Thank you for your advice everyone.