Let’s Talk Flour Storage!

Flour is the universal food of all cultures and the base ingredient in baked goods as well as sauces and tasty food coatings. If you’ve never given any thought how to store flour, this article is for you. Find out about flour containers, flour expiration, if it’s safe to eat expired flour, and the right flour environment.

If you are interested in long-term storage, jump to “How to store flour long term.” To learn about strategies for keeping bugs out of flour, move to “Dealing with bugs in flour.”

This article covers:

Can flour spoil?

Flour can spoil like any other food. Different flours contain different amounts of oil – the oil being the contributing factor that can lead to rancid flour. “Rancid” is the term used for an unpleasant smell associated with decomposing food.

Manufacturers delay the spoilage process by making their product more shelf stable. According to Bob’s Red Mill, the bran and germ are removed during the refinement process to make white flour. Removal of the germ greatly increases the shelf life of white flour, making it the most shelf stable. Other flour types with less processing will spoil more quickly.

Of course, people eat expired flour every day – expiration dates are only suggestions. Consumers can eat expired flour many months and even years past the “best by” date. Two things are important to stress: shelf life varies by storage method and type of flour. Check out spoilage times here.

Flour is safe to eat past the expiration is you have used long-term storage strategies. Consider this scenario: you’re taking an aged, all-purpose bag of flour off your pantry shelf (stored in the paper bag it came from) and want to know if it’s safe to eat. This flour is 2, 3, 4, or (wow) 5 years old. The integrity of the flour is doubtful – throw it out.

If I was taking the flour out of an air-tight container or even better, pulling it from a freezer, (and bug precautions were taken) I have every confidence 2 year old all-purpose flour would still be good to use. Three and four years old? Probably, Five-year-old flour? Yes, if the very best long-term storage methods for flour were used, I would be baking Aunt Mary Lou’s banana bread that same day.

Things get dicier with whole wheat flour and other flour varieties with higher fat content. Refer to “How to keep flour fresh” to learn more about flour storage for these types.

Depending on the type of flour and the method of storage, chances are that slightly expired flours are still OK for eating. What you will notice over time is a dip in quality – the flour just doesn’t rise nice like it did before. Baked goods don’t quite have the same delectable texture.

If flour is never opened in the sack it came in, it can go bad. The only actions that will slow down the decay of the flour is storing it in the refrigerator, freezer, or airtight container with oxygen absorber packets.

How do you keep flour fresh?

Flour is freshest when ground directly from wheat berries. After that, the next freshest experience is purchasing ground flour from the store before the “use before date.” Avoid buying extra pounds of flour unless you will use it quickly. 

Uncracked grain kernels or “wheat berries” can be stored for years, compared to ground flour. Ground flour loses its nutritional value, compared to unground wheat berries, just because there is more surface area exposed. In addition, fresh-ground grain tastes more flavorful compared with all-purpose bagged flour.

If safety planning and preparedness are on your radar, consider buying a food mill. Store wheat berries and grind whole wheat flour as you need it. Your kids will love the thrill of grinding their own flour and the taste of fresh baked goods.

How can you tell if flour is bad?

Signs of bad flour can include change in taste, smell, failure for baked items to rise, and signs of mold. The good news is that most of us never see the ugly side of flour shelf life.

Flour is neutral in taste. A change in flavor or smell doesn’t necessarily mean that the flour has gone bad, because it could have just absorbed odors from “bad actors” stored around the flour as covered in the section, “Where not to store flour.”

An easy way to tell if flour has gone bad is that it doesn’t look like it’s original “healthy” self. This means the original color and texture have changed. Old flour has become darker over time and the texture less smooth.

A slightly sour, musty smell is a sign of mold. In addition, Healthline references the National Library of Medicine by reporting that “gluten-free all-purpose flour, which typically combines several nut- or root-based flours, may be more vulnerable to mold due to its high moisture content.”

It would be easy to see signs of mold in white flour – this would appear as dark or off-color flecks. It is more difficult to see in brown flours, so look carefully for tell-tale signs of mold.

Flour that has gone bad will result in baked goods that will not rise properly.

Will I get sick from eating old flour?

The chances of getting sick from old flour are remote. In an article for Women’s Health, Christine Byrne, interviews nutritionist Molly Knauer, RD about flour storage. “If rancid flour contains large amounts of mycotoxins, it can make you sick,” explains Knauer (mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced by certain kinds of mold).”

Never fear, all of your senses kick in around suspicious flour and you will naturally hesitate. The smell of rancid-smelling food or musty-smelling food will discourage you from eating (or at least eating too much). The taste and over-chewy texture tells you something is not right.

You’re probably wondering “what kind of sick?” It is the usual trio of your body reacting to bad gut stuff: upset stomach, vomiting, and/or diarrhea. Again, this is very rare that you would get sick. This should be incentive enough to check the health of your flour!

What happens if I use old flour?

Using old flour will reflect in the loss of quality in your end product. Old flour has degraded gluten, so the dough won’t work up nice when kneading or rise properly. Food made with old flour will have a more chewy texture, but still can be eaten.

At some point, the food will be too unappetizing to eat and should be discarded. However, if you’ve taken proper steps to preserve the flour long-term, loss of quality will be negligible and the baked goods should retain an acceptable level of taste and texture.

OurHalfAcreHomestead proves that old flour bakes up just fine, by making a blueberry cake with 7 year old whole wheat flour! Wow! In another video, the host demonstrates how she cans flour (I’ve embedded at the end of this article). She says that old flour will be hard and lumpy. No worries, she gently digs it out of the jar and throws it in the food processor. The flour returns to it’s fluffy self.

In another video, a baker demonstrates making baguettes with 5-year-old flour! He compares baking with fresh versus flour that has been stored long-term. Fast forward to minute 9:30 to see him removing the bread from the oven and comparing quality between the baguettes. In his opinion, the 5-year-old bread tastes pretty good.

How to dispose of old or bug-infested flour

The best way to dispose of old flour is to put it back where it came from – out in nature. Dispose of old flour by sprinkling it in with green plant compost and mixing thoroughly. Regardless of disposal method, there are considerations to pay attention to:

• do not dispose of old flour where pets or wild animals can eat it and get sick or where it would attract wild animals to a house
• for bug infestations, minimize handling time inside the house to reduce spread of bugs
• do not dispose of flour in an indoor trash can, bug infestations can spread to the house
• dispose small amounts of old flour down a garbage disposal with adequate water so as not to clog drains

Which flour lasts the longest?

Shelf life is impacted by:

• ingredients
• level of processing
• storage methods

Different types of flour have varying shelf lives. Whole-grain flour (such as oat, spelt, rice, and whole wheat flour) and gluten-free flour (such as cornmeal, almond flour, and buckwheat flour) have shorter shelf lives than white flour (such as all-purpose flour, bread flour, or self-rising flour). Whole grain flour tends to contain more natural oils, which spoil quickly. White flour will last 6-8 months at room temperature, depending on the surrounding temperatures. Whole grain flour will last 3-6 months at room temperature.

Below is a chart of expected shelf-life of flour based on storage approach. Extended long-term storage requires special steps and equipment to hit the longer shelf times. Some of them are pretty neat, jump to the end of this article to learn about long-term storage options for flour.

FLOUR TYPE	Cool place	Refrigerator	Freezer	Vacuum Sealed Bags	Mylar bags+ Oxygen Absorbers+ Food-grade buckets
All Purpose	6-8 months	1 year	2 years	1-2 years	5-20+ years
Whole Wheat	3-6 months	6-8 months	2 years	1-2 years	5-20+ years

Reference: North Dakota State University Extension, Food Storage Guide
Reference: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Home Food Storage
Reference: Foodsaver.com How Long Can You Save It
Reference: Caltex Plastics, How to Store Food for Long-term Storage In Case of Emergency

Flour containers challenges

There are many options and ways to store flour. Flour does best stored in an airtight container away from sunlight. Both sunlight and air speed up the natural decay of flour. The other primary goal of flour storage is to keep bugs out.

A University of Minnesota Extension bulletin extensively covers pantry pests, “Pantry pests: Insects found in stored food.” To say the least, it was disturbing. Folks, you must get your flour storage right! If you’re bringing the paper bag of flour  home and putting it in a cupboard or open shelf, you are at risk fo