# How long does white flour last?



## ginnie5 (Jul 15, 2003)

I'm wondering how long it can be stored in buckets before it tastes off? I have wheat but white flour is just something we have not given up and I will want to keep it stocked. I have yet to make a really good whole wheat biscuit despite my best attempts. So if storing it for an extended time how long can I expect it to last? I"m storing in 25lb increments if that helps. That can last us one-two months depending on how much bread I make and how much I buy. In a worst case scenario I'm sure it wouldn't last a month. The kids can go thru 2 dozen biscuits a day as is now.


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## PATRICE IN IL (Mar 25, 2003)

You'd be better off storing white flour in the freezer for long term storage.


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

I put some unbleached white flour in a 5 gallon bucket with a poly bag liner up in 2006. We just used it in June/July of this year and it was fine. 
I know what you mean. I use half white and half ww to make most every thing and at this point i am not sure I am ready to use only home ground flour. I hope to figure out how to get a better product before long though. In the mean time I am putting away some white flour for use with the ww home ground.


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## JohnnyLee (Feb 13, 2011)

"Hermetically sealed in the absence of oxygen, plan on a storage life of 5 years at a stable temperature of 70 degrees F."

https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information_center/storage_life_of_foods.htm#link11

Wheat flour contains more oil (fat) than white flour and will go rancid faster.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

I ordered some (by mistake) from Walton Feed in an large order of other buckets about 1998, and it sat unopened in the basement ( about 60 degrees year round ) until my wife ran out of flour one day about 2009, and I said "time to try it"......it was fine near I as could tell. That was sealed in a mylar bag with O2 absorbers......so 10 years at least......and we put up quite a few buckets of it after that, and I'm guessing 10-15 years.....maybe longer.


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

I store flour in the bags it come in from the store. It keeps find in my basement pantry. White flour is basically inert, dead, non-food item like white sugar so it keeps for a very long time.


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## Just Cliff (Nov 27, 2008)

I store some. I know 5 years stuff is still good. I vacuum seal it in the bag it comes in. It doesn't like to seal very well by itself in the vac bags. I just poke a couple small holes in the paper bag stick it in a vacuum bag and it seals down very nicely.


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## homstdr74 (Jul 4, 2011)

Since we do not trust the stability of commercially ground flour, we do not store flour at all. We have a hand operated flour grinder and we store at least one fifty-pound sack of "hard" wheat berries. Wheat in its natural form can be ground for flour, cracked (using the same grinder) for a wholesome cereal, cooked whole, or sprouted (wheat sprouts are very sweet).

We also keep at least one fifty pound sack of soybeans, the uses of which are also obvious. We do not use either the wheat berries or the soybeans until rotation time comes, every few years.


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## ginnie5 (Jul 15, 2003)

okay then so I should be fine storing a year's worth if I rotate. Need to get a few more buckets first. Just the thing the kids want to hear lol!


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## mamakatinmd (Aug 21, 2005)

It absolutely will be fine. I buy 50# bags of white flour and break it down into gallon zip lock baggies. Then fill a plastic tote with the baggies to keep out mice. No mylar or oxygen absorbers. I don't even freeze before hand. Some is from 2008 and is just fine. I too mix white and fresh ground whole wheat for my baking.


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## mamakatinmd (Aug 21, 2005)

Oh! I just saw your quote at the bottom. I'm your first one then. I retired and have moved from Maryland to the North in Ontario! lol


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

I also keep flour for years..but advise to freeze it for several days before you store it...flour moths/eggs can come to you with it from the store. Really bites to open a 5 pound bag and find their webs, worms or moths!

As for those who grind there own wheat berries, a question. Would you get a more "normal" product (like for your biscuits) if when you grind do a coarse grind/crack first and sift then regrind the "fines" down to flour? Use the coarse shifted out for a cooked cereal. I have noticed anytime I smash a grain kernal you get the white starch and germ/coating??? You still would use it all just not in your baking flour.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

mamakatinmd said:


> It absolutely will be fine. I buy 50# bags of white flour and break it down into gallon zip lock baggies. Then fill a plastic tote with the baggies to keep out mice. No mylar or oxygen absorbers. I don't even freeze before hand. Some is from 2008 and is just fine. I too mix white and fresh ground whole wheat for my baking.


This is what I do too. I've kept some more than two years because I forgot it was in one of my tubs, and it was still fine when we used it. I use white flour for biscuits, cakes and dessert type foods, and mix it with whole wheat for bread and rolls. I have ground my own wheat a few times but usually just buy a bag of whole wheat flour on sale and use it up in a month or two. My wheat berries are sealed up for long term storage.


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## homstdr74 (Jul 4, 2011)

bee said:


> I also keep flour for years..but advise to freeze it for several days before you store it...flour moths/eggs can come to you with it from the store. Really bites to open a 5 pound bag and find their webs, worms or moths!
> 
> *As for those who grind there own wheat berries, a question. Would you get a more "normal" product (like for your biscuits) if when you grind do a coarse grind/crack first and sift then regrind the "fines" down to flour? Use the coarse shifted out for a cooked cereal*. I have noticed anytime I smash a grain kernal you get the white starch and germ/coating??? You still would use it all just not in your baking flour.


Yes. We grind at least three times for "fine" flour. Sometimes sift, sometimes not. But I prefer a "grittier" flour for bread, so we usually grind only twice for that, but three or sometimes four times for pastry flour. It may sound like a lot of work, but it's not, really, just a good little workout that is easy to become accustomed to doing.


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## Guest (Aug 30, 2011)

*I"m storing in 25lb increments if that helps. That can last us one-two months depending on how much bread I make and how much I buy.*

How long will it last depends heavily on how it is packaged and how it is stored.

With a vacuum sealer or oxygen absorbers and good packaging you can get at least four or five years out of it. If you have a nice cool basement maybe as long as eight to ten. Flour is a product that won't gas flush well at all so forget about dry ice or nitrogen.

I can say that I got three years out of the flour I stored doing nothing more than sealing it up in a canning jar. Storage temperatures in my Florida home runs from the sixties in the winter to the mid-eighties in the summer. No oxygen absorbers, no vac-sealing (did not have one years ago).

White flour is pretty heavily refined but there is still a tiny bit of the germ oil left in it and that is what sends it off. How fast it'll go off goes back to the oxygen in the container with it and the storage temperature. The less oxygen, the lower the temperature the better the storage.

Flour can be a bit of a chore to package though. If you're going to use oxygen absorbers then do not pack or shake the flour down hard in the container. Fill, then bump it one or twice, then put the absorber on top and seal it up. The particle size of the flour is so small that it can be packed tight enough that the absorber would not be able to get all of the oxygen out. If vacuum sealing don't fill the jar or whatever completely full and carefully wipe the inside of the jar rim or bag mouth before turning on the vacuum otherwise loose flour can get sucked into the seal and spoil it.

*In a worst case scenario I'm sure it wouldn't last a month. The kids can go thru 2 dozen biscuits a day as is now. *

You did not ask but I'm going to give some unsolicited advice here. Start slowly working more whole wheat flour into their diet. You can start with using one quarter or one fifth whole wheat flour to the remainder white flour and it should not materially affect your recipes. Take your time and gradually improve the ratio to one third and two thirds, half and half, until eventually you are entirely over to all whole wheat flour. If you mill hard white wheat instead of hard red the difference will be even less noticeable. Do this slowly and you'll be able to work out the necessary changes to your recipes.

As a major source of calories for your kids as you seem to be indicating indicating in your original post white flour is a poor nutrition source. You'd be ever so much better served with more whole grains for everyone's long-term health. Just take your time to gradually transition them over from refined to whole grains rather than making an abrupt transition. This will give them time to become accustomed to it and give you opportunity to better learn how to work with your grain.


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

Don't they enrich white flour. Wouldn't the vitamins deteriate over time?


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

We don't use much white flour in our diet so I don't worry about any loss of food value. Pie crust, cookies, cakes, etc. are not really eaten for food value!!!!! If I'm making bread it will be 50/50 (or less) with whole wheat.


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## jlrbhjmnc (May 2, 2010)

ginnie5 said:


> okay then so I should be fine storing a year's worth if I rotate. Need to get a few more buckets first. Just the thing the kids want to hear lol!


I would agree - I have some all purpose flour in a bucket, not in mylar and not sealed in any way, just over one year old and so far, so good. Stored in climate controlled area, average temps 65 to 72, average humidity about 50%.


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## Guest (Aug 30, 2011)

A year in a sealed storage container at any reasonable storage temperature is entirely possible.


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