# flour for long storage



## VICKI1 (Jul 23, 2004)

Would you share how you store flour for long term? I have put it in the freezer but don't want to leave it there. I have read different ways but would like some advice from people who actually store for more than 1 year.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Mine is in the fridge or freezer. With the humidity here that is the only reliable way I can keep it long term without it getting rancid.


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## VICKI1 (Jul 23, 2004)

do you repackage it any certain way?


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I put the bags in 1 gallon zippered plastic freezer bags because that is what I have handy. My grandma wrapped hers in freezer paper. It seems kind of stupid to rewrap something that is relatively cheap to buy, but when I was little that 25 cent bag of flour was a hour drive away. Come to think of it, for me now that $1.29 bag of flour is an hour round trip. Gas costs close to $3.00 to make that trip. So the few pennies I spend on a freezer bag is worth the cost. Besides, now you never know when the store will be out of flour. We have had empty spaces several times when I went shopping. I would like to find something better than plastic freezer bags but for now that is what I have.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

for longest term storage Mylar bags vacuum sealed , freeze it a week then vacuum seal then store cool dry and dark

if you need longer than that you store it as wheat berries same process , freeze , vacuum pack , cool dry dark

I no longer eat hardly any flour so a lot less of an issue for me 

I never got into extreme long term storage just a year in a food grade bucket with gasket , in a thick food grade bag liner after a run through the freezer for a week if you need more than a years worth stored , well you might want to start thinking about a better way of securing supplies.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I don't use that much flour. I think the bag currently in use is 2 or 3 years old. If I make cookies, it's usually no-bakes.


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## VICKI1 (Jul 23, 2004)

I don't bake much anymore but I do like to on occasion so I want to keep it on hand. I appreciate the help! Any suggestions on how to store powdered sugar and brown sugar long? I don't use it a lot but I do keep extra on hand.


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## Fishindude (May 19, 2015)

At my hunting cabin, I put bags of flour in a sealed Tupperware container and haven't had a problem with it lasting a year or two, or more.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Powdered sugar lasts a long time as long as it is kept dry. I have some that has been in a Tupperware container for a few years and it's still good. Brown sugar tends to dry out if not kept airtight. But like white sugar, it lasts a long time if kept from excess moisture. Bugs don't get into the sugars like they do flour. 

I opened a Tupperware container of 3 year old flour and the stuff smelled really bad. I don't know if it was the plastic off-gassing or just the flour but it smelled up the container bad too.


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## damoc (Jul 14, 2007)

I store flour in the form of wheat berries. They can be ground into flour sprouted to greens malted to sugar fed directly to chickens or used directly in soups and stews and in the form of wheat berries it will keep for about forever if kept dry and away from rodents. I forgot to mention they can also be planted to produce more.


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## miteigenenhaenden (11 mo ago)

I store flour in tightly closable buckets in the basement. It is relatively cool, dry and dark there.


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## poppysfarm (Apr 10, 2009)

I have some flour that was frozen and has now been in my fridge for year plus. I find in the freezer it lasts forever and the fridge flour has been good for 2 plus years. Now I am going to try the mylars. We go through flour - make homemade bread, cakes etc. frequently but want to have a good supply in case of a shortage.










How to Store Flour For The Long Term


The best ways to store flour so it can last for years or even decade, including shelf life of flour with vacuum sealing, oxygen absorbers, and Mylar bags.




www.primalsurvivor.net




*Mylar Bags with Oxygen Absorbers*
*Shelf Life: 10+ years*

If you want to store flour for months, years, or even decades, the best solution is to use oxygen absorbers in sealed Mylar bags.

Mylar bags are made from a metal-like material which is impervious to moisture and oxygen. By sealing flour in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, the flour is completely safe from light, moisture and oxygen. Even insect eggs can’t hatch because there isn’t oxygen in the packaging.

When stored this way, white flour can last 10-15 years. Whole-wheat flour can last approximately 10 years this way.


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## VICKI1 (Jul 23, 2004)

Where do you all buy your Mylar bags?


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## weaselfire (Feb 7, 2018)

Best way to store flour is before it is ground. Wheat berries, corn kernels and so on. Always stick a new bag of flour in the freezer for a week. Kills the bugs that got in at the mill.

Oxygen, light, moisture and bugs are why flour goes bad. Need to eliminate them for long term preservation. Whatever techniques are available will allow work.

Jeff


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## maddy (Oct 30, 2010)

Flour is not meant for long-term storage. Better to store wheat berries and a grinder.


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## CBe (9 mo ago)

I opened a Tupperware container of 3 year old flour and the stuff smelled really bad. I don't know if it was the plastic off-gassing or just the flour but it smelled up the container bad too.
[/QUOTE]
I just opened up a mylar bag with 25lbs of flour that was stored in a bucket for four years. When sealed, I removed as much air as possible and added a couple of 2000cc OA. It smelled off, not really rancid, but a strange smell. I wonder if it might be from the mylar?


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I have never used mylar bags so I don't know if they have an odor. 

The bad thing about funny smelling flour is that anything you make with it, will smell and taste funny.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Danaus29 said:


> I have never used mylar bags so I don't know if they have an odor.
> 
> The bad thing about funny smelling flour is that anything you make with it, will *smell and taste funny*.


Must be clown flour.

<Pony ducks and runs>

<trotting back>

I first freeze flour to kill off bugs. Then I repackage it with the vacuum sealer. So far so good.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

VICKI1 said:


> Where do you all buy your Mylar bags?


Late reply, but for anyone wondering the same, I’ve bought mylar from a bunch of places, and this was by far the best price on high quality.






Super Premium Mylar Bag and Sets, Seal Top Gusset | PackFreshUSA


Super Premium Mylar Bag and Sets, Seal Top Gusset on PackFreshUSA, an online seller of flexible packaging and storage solutions for commercial food products and home food storage, specializing in oxygen-free storage environments




packfreshusa.com





The link is directly to their 7mil section. They have thinner bags cheaper, but, for long-term storage, 7mil really is the way to go. If you’re going to store anything hard or crunchy, or you’re going to store multiple bags together, the 3 and 4mil (and thinner) bags are too easy to scratch; scratch the mylar coating, and you just lost your air barrier.

One feature I really like on the PackFresh, and a few others (but you really have to look for it) is rounded corners. Square corners on mylar bags are sharp and can very easily scratch or even puncture other bags they’re packed with.

Also, even though they cost more, I prefer the zip-top option. You really want to minimize the time that your oxygen absorbers are exposed to air other than in the sealed bag. With zip-top bags, my workflow goes like this:

- Fill all the bags I’m working on, squeezing the air out and zip each one shut.

- Open package of oxygen absorbers.

- In turn, open each bag, drop in OA, squeeze air back out and zip shut. 

- Heat seal open package of OAs (if I didn’t use them all)

- Heat seal all the bags from the batch.

Without the zip closures, each OA packet would be exposed to the air for as long as 5 or 10 minutes. They would probably still be OK, but it’s not worth the risk. With zip top bags, I can do 10 or 12 at a time, and the last OAs I put in are only exposed for a minute or less.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

Danaus29 said:


> I have never used mylar bags so I don't know if they have an odor.
> 
> The bad thing about funny smelling flour is that anything you make with it, will smell and taste funny.


Everyone’s taste sensitivity is different, so I can’t say you won’t notice, but I doubt it. Mylar bags are actually plastic bags, just like a Foodsaver, but have a metal film bonded to the outside. Plastic is good at keeping out moisture, but air leeches through it. The mylar is on the outside to prevent air from getting through to the plastic, and then in to your food.

When you heatseal a mylar bag, you’re melting together the two layers of plastic base, so I would think you’d be at more risk of picking up off flavors from that than the mylar. If a Foodsaver doesn’t taint the flavor for you, heat-sealed mylar probably won’t either.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

GunMonkeyIntl said:


> Plastic is good at keeping out moisture, but air leeches through it.


Burt Gummer in _Tremors 2_, "plastic is _not_ an oxygen barrier".

I know some people are sensitive to taste from metals. My grandparents had silver plated flatware which I detested! I was always swapping out the silver for stainless. I could taste something in the silver and it was awful.

But you have a chance of flour picking up off tastes in the freezer too. Especially if you store something pungent in there like onion or muskmelon. I'll never know where she got the idea of freezing muskmelon, but it was a bad idea. Even the onions picked up the muskmelon taste.

I guess with the mylar it would depend on the quality of the material. I'm sure some are worse than others.


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## Lowe.Buuck (Jul 1, 2017)

I store mine in 1/2 gal canning jars. I fill the jars in layers, packing it down with a potato masher (handle with a solid circular disk that just fits through the wide mouth neck) to get as much flour in and as much air out.

I cut a disk of paper towel that is slightly larger than the jar opening and put it on top of the flour.

I then use a FoodSaver with the jar sealer attachment to vacuum seal the jars. 

The paper towel disk helps to keep any flour from contaminating the sealing surface. Packing the flour tightly and leaving a small head space also helps keep all the flour in the jar. If you leave a void in the jar, the air will be sucked out along with some flour and will contaminate the seal. 

I also put a cotton ball in the jar sealer attachment to act as a filter so any flour that might get past the jar lid will not get sucked into the FoodSaver. (I had to take my first FoodSaver apart to clean out a bunch of flour the first time I tried this.)

I also store wheat berrys from LDS Bishops Store in #10 cans.

I just restocked last week and put up #50 of bread flour. Took 13 jars with a little left over. I store them in the basement. They easily store a couple years and the bread comes out just like fresh flour. I'm sure the flour loses some nutritional content, even in vacuum storage. I've been doing it this way for 15 years or so.


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## VICKI1 (Jul 23, 2004)

this may sound like a lame question but do you put a paper towel over the flat lid? I have vacuum sealed a lot of jars but I have never tried something like flour for fear of messing up my sealer.


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## VICKI1 (Jul 23, 2004)

Does anyone vacuum seal oat meal in 1/2 gallon jars?


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

VICKI1 said:


> this may sound like a lame question but do you put a paper towel over the flat lid? I have vacuum sealed a lot of jars but I have never tried something like flour for fear of messing up my sealer.


Not a lame question at all. I’ve never vacuum sealed flour in a mason jar, but I have sealed a lot of homemade spices and freeze-dried eggs, both ground to a flour-like consistency.

I’ve never seen the contents of the jar move around during the sealing process. You will see it swirl around in the headspace when breaking the seal, though.

I suspect the difference is that the individual puffs that the sealer’s pump takes aren’t big enough to move the contents around, but breaking the seal lets enough air rush in at one time that it is enough to blow them around.


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## Lowe.Buuck (Jul 1, 2017)

VICKI1 said:


> this may sound like a lame question but do you put a paper towel over the flat lid? I have vacuum sealed a lot of jars but I have never tried something like flour for fear of messing up my sealer.


The paper disk is on top of the flour and under the lid. It is just a bit larger than the jar opening so it firmly presses against the jar wall.

The purpose is to help prevent any loose flour from being pulled out of the jar. If any flour is drawn out of the jar it will stick to the sealing surface of the jar lid and it will keep the lid from maintaining a seal.

The cotton ball in the jar sealer attachment will act like a filter and keep the flour from being sucked into the tube and FoodSaver.



GunMonkeyIntl said:


> I’ve never seen the contents of the jar move around during the sealing process. You will see it swirl around in the headspace when breaking the seal, though.


It could be a function of the size of a 1/2 gal jar, or the fact that I firmly pack the flour. 

I have found that if I don't pack it evenly, air being drawn up will lift the flour at the top of the jar and it gets sucked into the Jar Sealer attachment. When this happens, I remove the lid and sometimes it looks like a worm hole down into the flour where the air has escaped from the jar. 

With the flour packed into the jar, the air can not freely be drawn through loose flour and has to find the path of least resistance.


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## Matt__C (4 mo ago)

poppysfarm said:


> Mylar bags are made from a metal-like material which is impervious to moisture and oxygen.


Mylar bags are made from a layer of tinfoil coated in a plastic called polyethylene terephthalate film (aka PET film)

The Scientific name for Mylar is BoPET "biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate"

Food storage for Mylar ideally must be non-see through/have no display window, and be a minimal of 7milimeter's thick

You can create your own "any size" Mylar bag by purchasing a roll of 7mil Mylar film and measuring the size bag and adding a 1 inch to desired length and width, folding it directly in half, then sealing the edges lengthwise. The 1 inch extra for the length and width is to compensate for the sealing. So to make a 5x3 bag, you will need to cut an 11x4 section from the roll of Mylar film.

Example of creating a 5x3 bag from a roll of Mylar film:
1. Measure 11 inch length and 4 inch width
2. Fold the bag directly in half (now you have a 5" length with an inch to spare for sealing
3. Use an iron to carefully seal about a 1/2 inch seam on both sides (Along the length)

I hope this makes sense.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

Matt__C said:


> Mylar bags are made from a layer of tinfoil coated in a plastic called polyethylene terephthalate film (aka PET film)
> 
> The Scientific name for Mylar is BoPET "biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate"
> 
> ...


You buy mylar by thickness in mils, not millimeters. Your “at least 7 millimeters thick” mylar would essentially be 1/4” aluminum plate. You could seal it, but it would require a pretty stout welder, and isn’t going to have much flex for stuffing with food. A 7 mil mylar bag, on the other hand, will be about 0.18 mm thick, 0.36mm when doubled up into a bag.

5mil is plenty strong enough for most uses. It all comes down to how sharp the food going in it is and how roughly the bags might be handled. The cheaper bags available are generally around 2-3mil, and would be fine for something like flour in a bucket. If you’re going to vacuum seal (or even OA) something that is less granular, and dry, 5mil is a better choice. 7+mil would be a good choice if you’re looking to avoid using a bucket for added protection.


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## spambedamned (11 mo ago)

CBe said:


> I opened a Tupperware container of 3 year old flour and the stuff smelled really bad. I don't know if it was the plastic off-gassing or just the flour but it smelled up the container bad too.


I just opened up a mylar bag with 25lbs of flour that was stored in a bucket for four years. When sealed, I removed as much air as possible and added a couple of 2000cc OA. It smelled off, not really rancid, but a strange smell. I wonder if it might be from the mylar?
[/QUOTE]
I have had the same experience. 
My best experience with flour is to purchase it from the LDS warehouse that is canned in #10 cans. I do not know if they still sell it in cans or if they have it in mylar pouches now.


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