Storing flour as opposed to raw wheat. thoughts?

[Einrich]

I was wondering about sealing flour in mylar bags inside of 5 gallon buckets. Anyone ever done this? Is it a good idea or should I just stick to wheat and a grinder? any help on this topic would be appreciated. Also sugar, anyone storing this? thanks in advance.

[Hard_At_It]

From my understanding flour has a shelf life of around 10 years. Wheat is much longer. Someone correct me if incorrect.

Sugar is a good idea to store, don't vacuum pack it though.

[stephpd]

10 years is what I found from BYU, as to length of time stored.
I store both wheat and flour. 50# bags of flour is still fairly cheap and is good for some simple carbs.

I store it just like everything else. Mylar, O2 absorbers in buckets.

Also correct that sugar and salt can be stored, just don't use O2's, can form bricks.

[Einrich]

Thanks for the info guys.

[Pangea]

I bought about 50, 5# bags or White Lilly flour on sale @ $1.88 ea. The information on the internet said that it would keep on the shelf in it's paper sack for 8 months. I vacuum sealed mine and will use it over the next two to three years. if we are still online in three years, I'll give an after action report.

eta I also have about 400# of wheat and a Grainmaker® mill. The wheat has diatomaceous earth mixed in and is in mylar with oxygen absorbers in a bucket.

[Ellen]

Originally Posted by Hard_At_It

From my understanding flour has a shelf life of around 10 years. Wheat is much longer. Someone correct me if incorrect.

Sugar is a good idea to store, don't vacuum pack it though.

Right, wheat will store much, much longer,

I have canned sugar in #10 cans. It clumps together but now that we are so poor we just consider it a hobby; breaking up the sugar. It tastes fine just a little inconvenient. It will clump in the original bag too.

Buy lots of sugar!

[getFOODnow]

I dont store wheat, I store the flour, in mylar with oxygen absorbers. I dont have room in my apartment for buckets of wheat.

[crb2012]

Store wheat and buy a grinder. Flour, especially bleached, lacks any nutritional value. Fresh ground wheat used within 2 weeks has every essential ingrediant the human body needs. Why waste space and time storing flour.

[goose3]

I've got a lot of wheat berries stored, but I also have about 150# of general purpose white flour stored as well.

The wheat berries will store 30+ years in mylar in a bucket w/ O2 absorbers. The outer kernel protects it.

Flour isn't as long-lasting. However, what appeared at one time to be a very short shelf life isn't. If you store it in mylar, w/ O2 absorbers, in a relatively cool environment, you should probably be able to get 10+ years out of it.

I can get white general purpose flour from Aldi's for $1.19 for 5#. So I can put up hundreds of pounds of it for very cheap (cheaper than wheat berries). If I throw it out after 10 years, I'll be glad. But if I do, the price is so cheap I can't not store it.

Lots of recipes use whole wheat flour as well as white flour, so I'm ready for that. Plus, I'll likely need to transition some of those I'm prepping for to a whole wheat diet, and the flour will help me do that.

I've stored it in 5-gallon buckets; I put in a large mylar bag, and I can JUST get five 5# bags in there, toss in a couple of 1500cc O2 absorbers, squeeze out what air I can, and seal it up.

Here are a couple articles on flour storage:

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

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

[MikeK]

White flour degrades nutritionally pretty fast, and it's no nutritional powerhouse to begin with. Whole wheat stores a lot longer and keeps it's nutrition. And it has a whole lot more of it to start with. I store a little flour, but it's mostly for short term use and convenience.

Grinding wheat isn't that big of a deal. And a good grinder can also be used for grinding popcorn into cornmeal, when cornmeal doesn't last long on it's own. Or for grinding beans to make them faster cooking, or to use old beans that are hard and won't simmer soft anymore.

It's a valuable prep tool to have.

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by getFOODnow

I dont store wheat, I store the flour, in mylar with oxygen absorbers. I dont have room in my apartment for buckets of wheat.

Huh? Wheat takes up less room that the equivelent weight of flour. You can store it in mylar just as easily.