Does Flour Go Bad

When you start baking you will notice that you always need the same ingredients. It often comes down to butter, sugar and flour. If you have too much butter for the recipe, put it back in the fridge. With sugar you store it in a jar. But what can you do with the flour? The question you may have is does flour go bad. Can you keep it forever or does it have a shelf life. In this knowledge base article I will give an answer for the question: does flour go bad.

What is Flour

I bet you have used flour before. But what is it exactly? When we talk about flour, it is often wheat flour. Wheat is a grain rich in starch. You can grind this wheat. The finest grinding you can get is called flour. Of course, the bran and germ must be removed. It may also be that your bran and germ are used. Then you cal it whole wheat.

How is Flour made

As described above, you need grain to get flour. Grain must first be ripe. Then the grain is mowed and cleaned. The cereal grains are collected during this process. Then the grain kernels are crushed by steel rollers. Then the product that is created here is sieved. This is to remove the grits and bran. This is ultimately the ingredient you use to make white bread, for example. If you want to make brown bread, you do not sieve. You will use the bran.

Different Types of Flour and lasting time

There are different types. The best known is all purpose flour. If you want to bake something, you will notice that the recipes almost always prescribe this. This can be with cookies, bread and pizza. Below I have listed how long it can be kept for each type:

• All Purpose Flour: in refrigerator 24 months
• Self Rising: cool dry place 10 months
• Instant: in refrigerator 6 months
• White: in refrigerator years
• Whole Wheat: in refrigerator 6 months

How to detect Stale Flour

Depending on the type you can store it for a long time if its in the refrigerator. The most important thing is to store it in plastic bags without air in a cool and dry place. Maybe you are thinking by yourself, I have stored it for a while but i don’t trust it anymore. How do I know for sure I can still use it. You can check it in two ways:

• Bugs
• Smell

The first thing is bugs. They have a brown color. When you see something brown in your bag that needs to be full of white, you can throw the bag away. The second thing is smell. When you open the bag and you notice a different smell, just throw the bag away. The smell will start because all the fats and oils go rancid. The smell can be sour.

Is it bad for your health to eat Rancid Flour

Yes it is, it will contain mycotoxins. This will get bad for you when you consume a lot. If you have your doubts, just buy a new one. A disclaimer: you really have to eat a lot of rancid stuff if you want to suffer from it. It’s on a long term bad for your health. So you don’t have to worry. But just to be on the safe side, it’s pretty easy to pop into the store and get a new bag. This way you can be sure that you have the right material. With the right ingredients you will get that perfect dish, like the Chocolate Chip Cookies I have made earlier!