Food storage.

[Firewoodjoe]

Well I'm no prepper by any means but I always have extra. Storms, just don't want to shop sometimes and im a self employed logger so never know when I could be broke. 😂

   Anyways. Today kids and I wear making cookies and found one flour weevil. Always heard about it but never had one. Anyways. I know they're harmless but that bag was almost gone. We pitched it. But it got me thinking about my other food in the pantry and how I store it. I'm going to dry can what I can from now on. But what about brown sugar? Does anyone else do anything with there dry goods?

[Southside]

I have a chamber vac for our chicken processing, it does double duty with storage of dry goods.

[SwampDonkey]

We dump flour, corn meal or sugar into covered containers. Never seen a bug that could drill through one yet. Bread is just in regular bread bags and stored in the bread cupboard. Any rice, split peas, lentils, barley, pasta and so on are in covered containers. Cereal is just left in the box or sealed bag they came in unless the box has no liner then it goes into a jar.

[Firewoodjoe]

From what I understand flour and some other grain like foods are allowed a certain amount of larvae from the factory. I was told to freeze it first. Then let it warm to room temp and re-container it. Freeze kills the larvae. That's one reason you sift your flour prior to baking. I guess I don't need to dry can it. It will be used. Prolly just like you guys say and re-container it would be more than sufficient.

[Magicman]

Protein.   

[SwampDonkey]

If you've ever been on a combine harvesting grain, the hopper is full of crawling beetles and stink bugs. Bound to be some eggs at one point. But have never seen any bugs in the flour here because for one it's processed, especially so if it's bleached. The grinding itself will mash most anything that can crawl. ;D

[21incher]

I found out commercial flour can not be stored long periods without freezing. It goes bad in a very short time no matter how it is packaged.  We switched to whole grains for that reason. A 5 gallon bucket  with  gamma lids is what we use. To be safe and kill bugs if you have doubts a chunk of dry ice thrown in the bucket before sealing will kill anything.

[Firewoodjoe]

Dry ice? Very interesting.

[21incher]

I understand freezing won't kill eggs but co2 will.

[NewYankeeSawmill]

From what I understand flour and some other grain like foods are allowed a certain amount of larvae from the factory. I was told to freeze it first. Then let it warm to room temp and re-container it. Freeze kills the larvae. That's one reason you sift your flour prior to baking.

That's what I read, and have been doing with the rice I've been putting up. I get the big 50lb bags at a restaurant supply house, break that down into 1-gal ziplocs that get a week in the big freezer, before going into a bucket with other goodies for long term.

[21incher]

If you're freezing be sure the freezer is set below -10 degrees to have a chance to kill everything. A week is a good amount of time. Good lids will help isolate any problems  to a single bucket.  Vacuum packing  bags are much cheaper  then zip lock bags if you have a sealer.  

[Stephen1]

This is a good topic, but I question the freezing. I live in the cold land of some real cold. When I kiln dry I heat the wood to sterilize it to 133F in the core of the wood. Freezing the wood is not an option because wood left outside to air dry will bring bugs into to kiln . A lot of my wood is left out all winter so some good freezing temps here, well below the 0 F . 
Now the flour weevil might die in freezing temps. 

[Don P]

I see its been covered while I had crepes with lemon curd and blueberries with Isaac's sausage, yum 

From what I've read it does need to be the deep freeze if you go that route, 0 degrees F or below. When I grind corn it goes straight to the deep freeze and I put a 5 lb bag in the fridge freezer when we need a fresh one there. I pull apart and clean the mill every time, the old country store only opened it to dress the stones. I've thrown weevils which is really disappointing when you're 25 lbs in to see the meal moving. When I grind and throw everything in the freezer there is one small ziplock of fresh meal I leave on the counter for a few weeks. Thus far I've not had a hatch from eggs brought in on the corn in that meal which tells me that they do a pretty good job of killing them upstream, if I get bugs it is probably me. I have found dead weevils in corn brought in which says to me they are treating. I know of one outfit that injects CO2 as they bag. Dry ice, I haven't checked on but I've been wondering about CO2/Argon?

[21incher]

From what I have read the Co2 (dry ice) seems to be the only way to guarantee all the eggs die. They say cold enough  freezing is a close second but not always 100%. As Don says buying from a good source will help eliminate some problems. 

[WCFAK]

I have run a fish processing plant for the last 25 years. The FDA has specific rules for freezing time and temp. for killing parasites in food. They require any ready to eat food we produce, salmon used for sushi and Ikura (salmon caviar), to be frozen to at least -4 degrees F. for at least 168 hours ( 7 days). If at any time during the 168 hours the temp. raises above the -4F the 168 hour clock must be started over. That time and temp will work for other food items.

[21incher]

I have run a fish processing plant for the last 25 years. The FDA has specific rules for freezing time and temp. for killing parasites in food. They require any ready to eat food we produce, salmon used for sushi and Ikura (salmon caviar), to be frozen to at least -4 degrees F. for at least 168 hours ( 7 days). If at any time during the 168 hours the temp. raises above the -4F the 168 hour clock must be started over. That time and temp will work for other food items.

Thanks for the  information.  Guess that means you can't  use a self defrosting freezer with the temporary defrosting spikes. Nice to know it will work on all parasites and eggs.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Mostly we just store in a bunch of heavy duty Tupperware containers and they seem very bug resistant. We do a running battle with little moths. I think they first came in with some bird feed/seed. They get into anything that is not tightly sealed. I even opened a box of brownie mix the other day. It was in a factory sealed cardboard box with a heavy plastic bag. I spotted one crawling in there and spotted its web looking nest. I could not see a pin hole but there must have been one. I pitched the whole box.

[Don P]

Pantry moths can eat through plastic bags and packaging. They are tough.

[21incher]

Probably the healthiest thing in a box of brownie mix. Cook to 180 degrees To be safe 

[Ianab]

Probably the healthiest thing in a box of brownie mix. Cook to 180 degrees To be safe 

Any crunchy bits are bonus protein? 

[doc henderson]

we get then from time to time.   drives my wife crazy.  We decided some came to us in bird food and corn for squirrels.  No longer on the back sunporch.

[Southside]

I even opened a box of brownie mix the other day. It was in a factory sealed cardboard box with a heavy plastic bag. I spotted one crawling in there and spotted its web looking nest. I could not see a pin hole but there must have been one. I pitched the whole box.

I could understand doing that with something like gluten free bread mix or dried veggies or something, but brownie mix?  No.  Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do....