Flour goes rancid quick, better way to store flour?

[problemchild]

I purchased canned wheat berries that are good for 30+ years as a way to combat the quick spoiling of some of my flour. I had no idea it would go bad so fast. I have 3 buckets lined with mylar with flour in them. Two have gone rancid already. But here is the good news you can use the rancid flour as a pesticide on your veggie plants.

I guess I can only buy wheat berries in sealed cans from now on. Better to have one #10 can spoil after opening than an entire 25lb bag of flour. We make our own bread but i over estimated how much milled flour we would need for the last year. I'm guessing the flour was good for 9 months. I know you can freeze it but i don't have enough room in my freezer for 75lbs of flour.

Anyone know a better way to store milled flour?

[KevinB]

# 10 can with a ox absorber. We open cans 10 years old and no spoilage.

[2shotjoe]

We put it in the freezer.

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[problemchild]

# 10 can with a ox absorber. We open cans 10 years old and no spoilage.

Really? So the O2 is making the oil in the flour go rancid. Man its a bad smell. Kinda like burning plastic. Are you talking #10 cans that you seam seal there at home?

[KevinB]

We always dry and heat our flour before sealing it in a can. The same with the rest of the flours, grains, beans and rice.

Where and what temp you store it at has a lot to do with it also. 160 degrees seems to be the magic number.

Storing your food in a cool place is paramount for long term storage.

[devilinblack]

Freezer would work fairly long term, and it's O2 that causes most spoilage isn't it?

I've seen plenty of reviews of wheat berries stored in 5 gallon buckets, with and without mylar and with and without o2 absorbers that claim it lasts for years. The stuff from the LDS cannery on-line seems to be reasonably priced and is already expertly packed in #10 cans though, there's a lot to be said for convenience.

[badreligion]

Oxygen is a great killer of food and needed to sustain life. By removing the oxygen your killing any pests that may be in your food including micro organisms that are present and stopping decomposition of the food. When I pack any dry goods for long term storage I add a few O2 absorbers to the container. The more tightly packed the less I use.

For example a 5 gallon bucket of flour I add 3 to it, seal the container and put it in the deep freezer for 24-48 hours. Then put it in storage. The idea is to cause any pest or organisms to go in to hybernation mode while in the freezer and at the same time allow the O2 absorbers to remove the oxygen. When you pull it out those nasties in the food either froze or have no Oxygen to live and they die and your food is stored in a nice oxygen free environment. I do the same thing with any dry goods regardless if I bucket, can or vacumn bag it.

I like the sealed #10 cans as they will allow you to have smaller quantities open for use and less chance of ruining a lot of your storage. They just take up more space. You can also vacumn pack dry good and place them in buckets to take up less space. Caution though don't pull out all of the air when vacumn packing dry goods. If you do they will turn into bricks making them harder to store away, and some things like grains and pastas may puncture the plastic during handling or storage. 80-90% with O2 absorbers works just fine.

[AleksandreCz]

Has Anyone tried The food grade Bucket and the dry Ice Trick Wondering It It would work For flour ?

[Dubious_Beans]

Yes, flour goes rancid quite quickly, especially whole wheat flour.
Oxygen is the big killer and heat accelerates the process.
Flour keeps pretty well in the freezer, but of course that can eat up a LOT of freezer space.

I'm going to try putting some in 2 quart or gallon jars with an oxygen absorber in each jar and see how that works.

Mostly I just buy bulk wheat berries these days and mill them as needed. Got about 80 lbs in storage now...

[problemchild]

Any idea how long flour will last being properly packed and O2 free NOT in the freezer and NOT in a metal can. I have mylar and 1 gallon jars I can vacuum pack with my foodsaver.

Yes, flour goes rancid quite quickly, especially whole wheat flour.
Oxygen is the big killer and heat accelerates the process.
Flour keeps pretty well in the freezer, but of course that can eat up a LOT of freezer space.

I'm going to try putting some in 2 quart or gallon jars with an oxygen absorber in each jar and see how that works.

Mostly I just buy bulk wheat berries these days and mill them as needed. Got about 80 lbs in storage now...

[speedrrracer]

Asked the wife, she agrees freezing is best, but acknowledges the burden.

A possible solution is to go with non whole-wheat flour. The problem with whole wheat is, as has been mentioned, the fat, which goes rancid as it interacts with the atmosphere.

With non-whole-wheat flour, the germ is removed, so the fat is no longer present to go rancid. Obviously this has an effect on the nutritional value, but at least you know you have an option.

We do what badreligion already described -- freeze (temporarily as he mentioned, just to shut down any critters) + vacuum + store with absorbers. We also have some non-whole-wheat stored in the same way. The intention is to see exactly how they last compared to each other.

It hasn't even been stored for a year yet, so a long time to go before I could give a progress report of any value.

[Southwest Chuck]

Costco shows 36 pounds in a 6gal bucket w/mylar and Gamma Seal lid that has a shelf life of 5 years, for $47.99 including shipping.

Costco Flour w/ 5 year shelf life

So I'm assuming if packed properly (w/ oxygen absorbers and maybe pre-frozen too), there is no reason you couldn't do this yourself? I don't know what went wrong with your packaging. Maybe how it was stored was a factor.

This has a 25 year shelf life
Hard White Winter Wheat 40 lb. Bucket

[IEShooter]

Flour -vs- Wheat

Costco shows 36 pounds in a 6gal bucket w/mylar and Gamma Seal lid that has a shelf life of 5 years, for $47.99 including shipping.

Costco Flour w/ 5 year shelf life

So I'm assuming if packed properly (w/ oxygen absorbers and maybe pre-frozen too), there is no reason you couldn't do this yourself? I don't know what went wrong with your packaging. Maybe how it was stored was a factor.

This has a 25 year shelf life
Hard White Winter Wheat 40 lb. Bucket

+1 on these. I have a lot of hard wheat. It stores much more easily and has a very long shelf life. I prefer it in #10 cans from Honeyville. Invest in a quality hand grinder and you can make your own flour easily. I actually enjoy doing this, though "raw" flour such as this will need conditioner and/or vital wheat gluten in order to get a second rise out of it. Makes VERY tasty whole wheat bread.

For convenience, the 5 year shelf life flour is a good solution. You just need to use it within a year of opening it, which is very doable. I would prefer to store it in #10 cans as these would be even easier to store and use up quickly after opening.

#10 cans of flour can be found here:

http://survivalacres.com/cgi-bin/quikstore.cgi?search=yes&product=SA5695&keywords=Flour&detail=yes

Note that they forecast a 5 year shelf life for these IF stored at 70 degrees or below.

[Dubious_Beans]

+1 on these. I have a lot of hard wheat. It stores much more easily and has a very long shelf life. I prefer it in #10 cans from Honeyville. Invest in a quality hand grinder and you can make your own flour easily. I actually enjoy doing this, though "raw" flour such as this will need conditioner and/or vital wheat gluten in order to get a second rise out of it. Makes VERY tasty whole wheat bread.

Yeah, +1 on the buckets of hard white winter wheat!
I have a hand mill and an electric mill (nutrimill) and the electric one grinds fine enough to make excellent bread without any conditioners or additional gluten if you sift out a portion of the bran first. I save the bran and add it to pancakes & such so none of it goes to waste.

[rspar]

+1 on the grinding your own wheat we have hard red and white but don't do any sifting or adding gluten not sure what your talking about there. We just grind it and let the breadmaker mix it and rise it, kneed it by hand and rise it a second time, and bake it in the oven. It comes out beautiful with a soft crust.