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Does Flour Expire? OK, you are here with the same question! A lot of people want to know about flour expiry, because it is such a common question among people who are not into cooking or don’t spend time in the kitchen (While Cooking).
Generally, people use flour within the week or so after they purchase it, so many of them are not concerned about it. This was about the people who grained the grains apart from that the packages have dates mentioned on them.
But there are many people out there who have flour in bulk or who are in a circumstance where they have to leave the flour for a long period in storage. So, Let’s know about it and have an extra bit of information too.
Does Flour Expire?
Flours are of many types, or you can say many grains after the grinding process ends up in Flour. So, Flour is nothing but a powder or an after product after grinding Grains. Whether, flour is of wheat, corn, or coconut you will have the same question for all “Does Flour Expire?”.
Sorry if you were expecting Something different but the answer is Yes. Mostly when we talk about anything edible it does expire. I don’t know but it is a kind of an untold law of nature. Whenever you buy packed Flour from a grocery store, you can check the expiry date, and generally, the flour can last longer than the mentioned date.
It doesn’t mean you will use it, the date is mentioned because it has a particular time window in which the flour can expire and its expiring period starts from the expired date mentioned on it.
Normally, whatever type of flour you use or you have in your storage for a long period, if you store your flour at room temperature then it can stay fresh for 3 to 8 months. It is strange that after the expiration period is passed the flour still stays fresh, you will be surprised to know that even after the expiry date your flour can last about 6 months or so.
After all these facts still it depends on where or when you store your flour. I know all these factors matter a lot to preserve flour but if you store it at a suitable place then it will not go bad early.
How To Know If Flour Has Expired?
I know I’ve mentioned above that flour can last longer from the given expiry period but the first indication you can get is the expiry date itself. As from that date the expiry time window starts.
If you are the kind of a person who doesn’t use flour on a regular basis then it will be difficult for you to tell the flour has gone bad by looking at it. I know you will have the same question again of how will you detect it then? So, now since you know the answer of does flour expire, let’s now look at other things like these.
Smell
One of the methods to know about expired flour is by smelling it. It’s not common to get the smell of expired flour, like if your senses are strong then you can smell a little bit, other than that most of us can’t.
Ok now it is weird but normally when you smell the fresh flour you will get a natural kind of smell but when it is gone bad the smell you will get will be more like dull or musty. I’m repeating it again, the smell may not be that strong, you have to smell it properly to know the difference.
Color
So now level 2, and this level is difficult to clear. Guessing the color is more or equal tough from guessing the smell of bad flour, and while guessing this stuff, a thought will surely cross your mind that does flour expire?
Again coming to the weirdest part of this guessing game, comparing the fresh flour and bad flour you will notice that fresh one looks more natural and good, I know it’s weird but you too will experience the same, and in bad flour, you will notice discoloration and again it may look dull.
I know you are reading a lot of similarities from above but you know there are two different body parts in use. If you are totally new to this game you can skip this part because you can just have an illusion and throw a good amount of flour out without any reason, and you don’t want to do that.
Lumps
Normally you can see no lumps when your flour has slightly gone bad or just started to expire. Lumps generally appear when the flour has gone bad and it is degraded on the scale of 9 out of 10 where the increase in the number of lumps states the worse condition of flour.
The second condition where your flour has lumps is when you don’t store your flour at a dry place or come in contact with water, in both of these situations your flour has absorbed moisture content present in the atmosphere, this develops lumps or you can say this shortens the lifespan of your flour.
So basically whenever you see such lumps in your flour, don’t have any second thoughts. You have to throw the flour out because consuming it can be dangerous. And if you keep your flour as it is in your home even after the lumps in it, the next you will witness is Worms. As I mentioned about the scale above, these worms indicate 10 on 10 destructions.
Worms
OK! So now you are looking at worms in your flour, what more can be worse than this? However, if you bought them from the market then you can enjoy eating them (Just kidding, No Offence).
This will be the next stage from where you observe little lumps in your flour, and if you want them to stay with you forever they will give birth to these baby worms. Now, if you still want to know about what to do with the flour, after worms gave you a surprise party, then your answer is you have to find a new home for them, maybe a dustbin would be nice.
These were the conditions you will see when your flour will go bad, So for your question Does Flour Expire? Yes, It does, and there are the stages where it does expire from time to time.
How to Store Flour?
So, everyone had the same question: does flour expire? But after that, there are some proper ways to store your flour and prevent it from going bad early. Your flour will never stay till eternity but it has a particular period of time to stay fresh, where it can stay for long if stored in the right place with the right method.
Whether or not your flour will go bad early depends highly on where and how you store it. Storing flour is not a big deal, they are easy to store at room temperature. You just have to store it in an airtight container and the important part is to keep it in a cool and dry place where it will not come in contact with moisture.
Apart from that if you want your flour to be fresh for a long period you can keep it in your refrigerator or even the freezer. The period you can observe here is, when you store flour at room temperature it lasts up to 6 to 8 months, when you store it in the refrigerator it will last for a year or so, and if you store it in the freezer it will last for 2 years.
Now, I know most of you will have the same kind of question again, that if it stays in the freezer or refrigerator it will be prone to moisture there so does flour expire in these machines too? First of all, wherever you store flour, keep one thing in mind, you should have an airtight container, SEALED TIGHT for moisture!
Following the process, after you store the flour in the freezer or refrigerator, you have to keep it idle for some time till it’s temperature settles down to room temperature. If you don’t follow this, then you’ll see lumps in it. This happens because of condensation if you want to know about condensation here you go.
Why Not to Use Expired Flour?
I know this heading is useless, or whatever you want to say after reading it. But, above I’ve mentioned that flour can be used just after the expiration period (in the initial stage) so I have this heading in detail and I’ll explain the risks too if you use expired flour. However, by now you know very well whether does flour expire or not!
Mainly this expired flour harms us because when flour starts to deteriorate, its molecular structure starts to change. If you are buying packed ones and they are expired but just passed a couple of days or weeks, it’s still edible, but I’ll recommend you to avoid it. If the flour is expired for a long period then having it will harm you.
When Flour gets deteriorated and you find lumps, it starts producing dangerous chemicals like mycotoxins. And because of it, a person can experience vomiting and diarrhoea. See I don’t mean to scare you but this mycotoxins chemical is related to cancer and liver problems.
There is no need to worry about it till you don’t eat this expired flour in excess quantity for a long time. I know this chemical is related to cancer and liver issues but if you throw away and avoid eating expired flour at the right time then you don’t need to worry about it.
So till now reading the end of this article, you know all about the expired flour and you got the answer of does flour expire too. So whenever you see any signs of deterioration, just throw it away.
Cessation | Does Flour Expire
So winding up with the article of Does Flour Expire, hope you understood about it and know how important it is to have healthy food. It’s not only about the flour, but there are also many such food items which expire and you will never realize it.
It was all about Does Flour Expire, if you have anything interesting to share about it please feel free to express your views in the comment section. If you want to read more of this type of article you can check it out on our website. Till then eat healthy, stay healthy!
