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Can I store flour in a mylar bag inside a bucket?

62K views 37 replies 28 participants last post by  IamZeke 
#1 ·
Maybe that's a dumb question :upsidedown: but I asked an ebay seller a question about the size of their mylar bags (to use for flour) and he replied back that you should never store flour (white) in a mylar bag.

:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

I thought you *could* use a mylar bag (w/ O2 absorber). Am I wrong??:confused: This is my first time using the mylar bags and I don't want to mess it up. (And I know that wheat berries are better, but I'm starting w/ what I know for right now).
 
#4 ·
Yes, you can--though it's not optimal.

Flour doesn't have a particularly long shelf life. If you're looking for a long shelf life, store wheat berries and grind whole wheat flour as you need it.

You can, if you store wheat berries in Mylar w/ O2 absorbers, and you store it in a cool place, expect to get 30 years or more out of them.

Flour? Not so much. If you are planning on storing flour, plan also to use it and rotate it.

Or, if you're expecting the S to HTF any time soon, then you might well get the necessary shelf life from flour.
 
#5 ·
Think about it... white flour is kept in a paper bag under normal conditions. It is not THAT fragile or it wouldn't be stocked that way. Pasta is flour that has been mixed with water, and sometimes salt, then compressed. It is then shaped and dried back out.

Dry white flour dry, will store fine for at least 10 years if NOT stored in the heat. The trick is to "pat it down tight" and get as much air out of it as you can. Use 2000cc o2abs too.

Whole wheat berries last thousands of years because the hull protects the inside, especially the wheat germ, from air, moisture, and light. You are simply doing the same thing, but without having to protect the germ which has been removed.

You do want to be sure to start with fresh flour.

White flour is pretty much a "non food." All of the wheat's natural goodness has been stripped from it. I don't even consider it a "survival food." It is more of a comfort food.

Be sure to at least get the "enriched flour," that is "all purpose." I suggest you only store enough for deserts and gravies, maybe some to make pancakes and biscuits fluffier when mixed with fresh ground whole wheat. Your fresh ground whole wheat will have the vitamins and minerals, as well as the healthy fat of the wheat germ. It also has more fiber.
 
#10 ·
I think the worry about storing flour in mylar comes from the fineness of the flour and fear that it might foul the seal. Even sealed, it just doesn't store well long term though. Whole wheat store better and has a LOT more nutrition. Unfortunately, to make flour requires a grinder. But a grinder doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg, and it gives you great versatility. With it you can turn simple popcorn into the best cornmeal (and grits!) you've ever tasted. You can grind beans to make them cook faster, or to augment the nutrition of other foods, included breads and even cakes!

This is why wheat has long been the main staple of most long term food storage programs. The Mormons are probably the most reknowned experts on food storage and their basics have always been wheat, powdered milk, honey and such.
 
#13 ·
I have not yet started storing up carbs, so I don't want to seem critical, but my deal is that I don't want to live live crap after TSHTF. In that regard, I've eaten whole wheat pasta, and I frankly hate it. I've eaten whole wheat bread, and the whole wheat flavor is overpowering, whereas you can flavor bread flour a thousand different ways cheese, jalapenos, egg, fruits, make it into pizza crust, matzo, etc.

When I get around to it I will store up a mixture of things, but basic bread flour will be high in the list.
 
#14 ·
Generally the white wheats are milder tasting than the reds. They don't have as much of that typical whole wheat bitterness. White Baker's Special is a high gluten white wheat that makes outstanding bread.

Another trick is to mill the wheat not quite flour-fine, then sift it with a fine sieve. This remove a lot of the bran, where the strong flavor is. Then you can grind it finer. You can use the bran in muffins and things where the sweetness and spices hide the flavor, and it's texture enhances them. That's a good way to be able to have milder breads and pastas, while still getting all the nutritional benefits and fiber of whole wheat.

But I guess a lot of it depends on how our tastebuds interpret it. To me, the flavor of anything with whole wheat just tastes more "wholesome" and earthy and I like it better.
 
#15 ·
I used to be a little down on flour as a prep but I've changed my mind on that.

White flour--not whole wheat flour which will not store near as long--can have a very long shelf life if stored properly. Mylar bags and O2 absorbers.

Here are two links about long-term storage of flour:

http://www.tribwatch.com/artStorageLife.htm#flour

http://survivalacres.com/information/shelflife.html

There are a lot of reasons, IMO, why it can make sense to store flour:

1. I've been buying it cheap; Aldi has had it for $1.19/5# bag, though I haven't been there for a couple weeks and it may have gone up. It's cheaper than the whole wheat berries I get from Wal-Mart at twice the price for equivalent weight.

2. Many recipes call for some general purpose white flour in addition to whole wheat flour.

3. Whole wheat flour ground from wheat berries may not be palatable for some appetites; some find it a little bitter-tasting (hard red wheat berries specifically). Having white flour will let me transition people into a completely whole wheat flour diet.

4. For many people, unless they've been eating whole wheat products prior, a switch to whole wheat flour can have interesting intestinal effects. White flour again can help transition.

Make no mistake, I have far more wheat berries stored than flour, but I think there's a place for it, a good place for it.

FWIW: I store my flour in those 5# bags in buckets; I can JUST get five of those bags in a bucket, inside a large mylar bag. I toss in two 1500cc O2 absorbers, squeeze out as much air as I can as I seal it, and I'm good to go.
 
#16 ·
Shelf life of flour will never be as long as whole wheat berries. But you can extend the shelf life by proper packing. Metal cans are the best way to store most anything. Mylar helps too though they haven't been around long enough and no actual studies on them as a storage device.

It's the seals that are the weak point on Mylar bags. Best guess is they are good for 10 years. Eventually the seals will leak and allow air in, thus making the food subjected to oxidation again.

Nutritionally flour is a poor choice but carbs are carbs and it's a cheap filler.

I store it in Mylar and see no problem with it. I do store more whole wheat then flour though.

When I first came onto this site (1 year ago) folks were saying 1-2 years max for flour but the tests at BYU had been out for years (2004) saying 10 years or more. So at least the word is spreading lately.

These are my two 'go to' links for food storage;
http://ndfs.byu.edu/Research/LongTermFoodStorageResearch/ResearchOnFoodStorage.aspx
http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/r...SOBOX1=Nutrition,+Dietetics,+and+Food+Science
 
#19 ·
Please, if you are just starting out, go and buy a 5 lb bag of 100% WHOLE WHEAT flour (from a place you assume it to be fresh) and use it to make yourself 100% whole wheat bread and other baked goods that you like. Be sure you like the stuff before you buy lots of wheat berries and an expensive grinder. 100% whole wheat does not taste just like white flour that's just got some bran in it. If you have bought bread at the store that just says "wheat bread" and you liked it, be aware that it was made with mostly white flour, a little whole wheat flour and some brown coloring. 100% whole wheat tastes much stronger, sometimes even what I would call bitter overtones.

For survival, you will eat most anything. But you know, what if there isn't a major SHTF and you aren't all that fond of 100% whole wheat bread? You will have wasted the money AND the wheat.

Make sure you like it first!

You might want to consider more oats and barley for better, milder flavor as an alternative, too.
 
#22 ·
Been going through some of our stores of white flour lately. Some were stored from 8-10 years ago. We stored them in quart sized wide mouth canning jars (there was a dual purpose to this) that were packed solid by banging the bottom of the jar on a wood cutting board to get the material packed very tightly. Then I used my vac packing machine with the canning jar adapter to suck out additional air. No O2 absorbers were used. The jars were then put on the pantry shelf. The flour has been in excellent condition. We did however find a couple of wheat flour jars that had gone rancid though, learned a small lesson there.
 
#24 ·
I know this post is old, but apparently many people here still don't believe that you can store plain old white flour for more than a year. This person didn't even use oxygen absorbers, which are far preferable to vacuum sealing, and still had mostly good flour after around 10 years. This is no different than what the LDS people have been saying for years. I know of people who have stored flour in plastic tubs with no preservation techniques at all and eaten it 5 years later with no problems.

And why do so many people harp on white flour not being nutritious? White flour (or rice) gives you what you really need in a disaster: calories. A healthy person can go weeks to months without eating 'nutritious' food (assuming sufficient caloric intake) before problems start developing. If you throw some cheap multivitamins in there, you can go a long, long time. And before someone says that multivitamins are worthless, look at what humanitarian organizations have achieved with them in third-world countries. It's incredible.

I don't know about you, but having flour (along with some kind of fat, baking powder or baking soda or yeast, salt, and sugar) can easily lead to some tasty eating. Loaves of bread (easily made with a $65 bread machine), flatbread (made on a skillet), biscuits, pancakes, cake, doughnuts (if you can fry), and the like sound like 'fun' food to be eating after a disaster. Combine that with canned or jarred jellies, peanut butter, regular butter (canned can last 10 years easily), canned soups, etc., and eating in a disaster sound pretty doggoned good. It definitely sounds better to me than manually grinding up red wheat berries after a disaster. I think I'll have more pressing concerns in such a situation.

But that's just my two cents.
 
#25 ·
Maybe that's a dumb question :upsidedown: but I asked an ebay seller a question about the size of their mylar bags (to use for flour) and he replied back that you should never store flour (white) in a mylar bag.

:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

I thought you *could* use a mylar bag (w/ O2 absorber). Am I wrong??:confused: This is my first time using the mylar bags and I don't want to mess it up. (And I know that wheat berries are better, but I'm starting w/ what I know for right now).

Yes you can, 1st put it in the freezer for 3-4 days to kill any bugg eggs that may be there.

Back in Y2K I stored a 5 gallon bucket full of all purpose flour, I had no idea what I was doing. I just dumped the flour in the bucket and sealed it. It was stored right next to my hot water heater so it wasnt stored it the best of enviroments.

4 years later(2004) I get married and my wife finds the bucket and uses about 1/2 of it and it was just fine. We forget about the bucket of flour until we find it again in 4 yrs later (2008) which makes it now 8yrs old. The flour seemed a little flat but we used it for fried foods just fine but I wouldnt have used it for bakeing,but it worked just fine for frying.


If you dont have a large family what I would do is put like a pound or two of flour in maylar and put other stuff you want in the bucket as well. Dont do like I did and fill 1 whole bucket up with flour its much better putting 2lb of flour + other needed stuff in 5 buckets to keep everything freasher.

I'm not sure how long yeast can be stored for.
 
#27 ·
Did not read all........

I buy flour in ten pound bags. I put it in a 2 gallon freezer weight zip type bag with Bay leaves. I push out as much air as i can and zip the bag closed. I also put a label with a date on the bag and freeze it of 10 days or more.

Then I take it out of the freezer and let it thaw in our cool basement for several days to check for dampness within the bag.

If no moisture is seen I put the bagged flour in a food grade bucket and seal to. I put a label on the bucket also. I have given my wife flour that was 3 years old and it baked up just fine.

I use the same process with pasta and rice.
 
#29 ·
http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/IR/id/1243/rec/4

Very interesting study stephpd! Shows the ole 5-gallon HPDE bucket lets in O2 like a sieve. With 2000cc oxygen packets, day one O2 levels start down at 1% but by day 17, it had risen up to 8%. The packets would not not have stopped bug infestation. That's when the experiment was concluded, probably would have reached atmospheric levels in a few months.

What I take from this is: For most LTS applications, cheap Sterlite containers are just as rodent and oxygen proof as HPDE buckets and you could use a lawn and leaf bag to keep bugs out. Any thoughts on that?
 
#30 ·
I've not seen any containers bigger than glass jars that are airtight and affordable. The only reason people use 5 gallon buckets for food storage is to keep out vermin and to protect the Mylar bags of food inside. The other benefit is you have a very useful bucket leftover after you eat the food inside. My local cost for the bucket is around $4 plus $1.50 for the lid.

For the money, though, plastic totes are even cheaper and do the same thing. You can get an 18 gallon plastic tote at Lowe's or Wal-Mart for around $14 including the snap on lid. They will be too heavy for most people to move around when full of food, so consider that as well.
 
#33 ·
I have lots of 1kg packets of white flour stored. I simply put it in freezer for a few days, then afterwards vacuum seal and put the packet (still wrapped inside paper packaging from the shop) in a foodgrade plastic bag with a packet of instant yeast inside the bag and vacuum seal it. (I place a packet of yeast with each 1 kg packet of flour, so when I want to bake or fry, I just grab a bag and have the makings of a bread or whatever)

Anyway, I dont put the flour in mylar or use oxygen absorbers. This year I started using my preps from 2009 and so far every packet of flour that I have used have been fine and had no problems cooking or baking with it.
 
#34 ·
I know this is an old thread, but it's pertinent information still. I have a related question, can anyone answer from experience?

It's on packing 5 gallon mylar bags, for individuals or couples who won't go through the supply very fast when it's opened in the future.

Is the quality, taste, or flavor of white flour affected, if it is packed in small brown paper bags before being sealed in mylar with oxygen absorbers?

Does anyone know of any problems that could result?

Also what, if any, are potential concerns about packing a variety of dry items like beans, rice, flour, potato flakes, etc, in small brown paper bags, together in a 5 gallon mylar bag with oxygen absorbers?

I realize the longevity would be limited by the shortest lasting item. But will this type of variety packing cause any problems that anyone has experienced?

Thank you for your thoughts and advice on this.
 
#35 ·
Why not store the flour in 1 gallon mylar bags and put into a bucket or tote?
That would be ~6 pounds per bag which is enough for 6 loaves of bread, less if one eats some pancakes and muffins. :) The open shelf life starts when you open the bag so, 6 pounds is not going to expire on you before you use it.
 
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