Critters in the flour...

[brickie in oz]

Critters in the flour...

I went to make some bread today and found critters have laid grubs in the flour....yuk....

The flour was in a sealed plastic tub too, I had to chuck out 10 kilograms of good bread flour.....

[Faith In Virginia]

This may be really gross to most but I think your bugs were already in your flour in a larvae state. As your flour gets old the bugs start to grow.

[brickie in oz]

Originally Posted by Faith In Virginia

This may be really gross to most but I think your bugs were already in your flour in a larvae state. As your flour gets old the bugs start to grow.

Hi Faith.
Yup I had thought of that, we had some flour in a sealed glass jar some years ago and after a while you could see tunnels appear in the flour and tracks on the glass.

I made the mistake of buying two sacks of flour this time instead of 1 at a time and it stayed in the plastic tub too long..

I did think about sifting this last lot but there was silk webs in the flour.

[david s]

i wonder if microwaving the flour would kill the bugs?

[brickie in oz]

Probably but they leave a silk trail.......yuk

[david s]

option 1. chuck the flour
option 2. sift out the bugs and their rubbish
option 3. bake bread but don't tell anyone about the bugs
I've tried all three options, not sure what's best. I bet commercial bakeries have the same dilemma

[brickie in oz]

I went and bough another bag of flour, critter free hopefully.
Im now trying some 80% hydration chiabatta.

[Tscarborough]

There are bugs in all flour. Here is how I deal with it:

Buy small amounts (5#)
Freeze it for a week

[brickie in oz]

Good tip with the freezing.
I made the mistake last time of buying 2 x 10 Kg bags.

[C5dad]

I freeze all of my grain and flour to avoid the little buggers. Have not had a problem in a while!