moonflower Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 We have a lot of medium/longish term food storage in our pantry, which we discovered a week ago (after mostly ignoring it for 6 months) had mold. The flour is in these sort of paper 25 lb (I think) bags; there was some fuzzy blue/green mold on the outside. Is there any chance this flour is still good inside the bag? Also, what do you guys do for long term food storage? Obviously our scheme of just buying it, putting it in there, and forgetting about it was not the most brilliant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freesia Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 I don't know about the flour. I probably wouldn't. We usually use the extra freezer we have for storing things like flour super long term. I've also used plastic containers. It's a good idea to rotate long term items. Every summer I go through our cans and write expiration dates on the top with a sharpie. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 Maybe try to identify what your goals are for long-term storage. Are you buying in bulk because items go on sale (if so, find your sale cycle- how often the item is on sale- and only buy enough to last between sales) or because you want to have an emergency supply (If so, determine how long you want that supply to last). From there, mark purchase dates in big writing on the containers and rotate, using oldest first. 25lbs of flour for us would be close to a year's supply, so I can't imagine having more than the open bag we're working from plus one in reserve. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 Long term storage? I buy in #10 cans or Mylar sealed bags in 5 gallon buckets. There are companies that specialize in long term storage. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjzimmer1 Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 I buy flour in 25 pound bags and since we easily go through it in a month I don't worry about how to store it. However, since flour is dry, it's not likely to mold on its own. I would be more concerned about what liquid was spilled/leaked in your storage area as I think something got on the bag to cause the mold. As far as using it or not. If it was only the outer layer (ours has at least 3 layers of paper) and there was no discoloration on the inner layers. I'd probably still use it. But if I saw any signs of anything inside the bag, then I would toss it all. In the scheme of things flour isn't that expensive. As far as long term storage. I have a bunch of food grade plastic buckets (some are 3 gallon and some are 5 gallon) and have gamma lids on them. Super easy to open and close but water and bug proof. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonflower Posted June 17, 2019 Author Share Posted June 17, 2019 It's for what you might call long term emergency storage - something short of the apocalypse but more serious than say an earthquake. (although we've used it during a semi-extended power outage, too). Thanks for the info, all, I will look into the Mylar and the buckets, and dating things with a sharpie is a good idea. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.