Flour has a long shelf life but generally goes bad after 3–8 months. White flour may last longest due to its lower fat content, while whole-wheat and gluten-free varieties spoil sooner. Be sure to throw out your flour if it has any unpleasant odors, discoloration, or mold growth.
Can wheat flour spoil?
The fat and fiber, along with many of the other vitamins and minerals, in the less processed wheat will spoil when kept on a shelf for too long . Whole wheat flour only has a shelf life of one to three months, a significant drop in time when compared to white flour.
Regular flour tends to last 6-8 months past its printed date, while whole wheat flour is typically only best for an extra 4-6 months. According to Eatbydate. Com, the type of flour can drastically change its shelf life.
An almond flour should always be the off white color of almonds. If your flour changes color to anything other than it’s original state, it has gone bad . Wheat flour with a yellowish tinge may have bad oil seeping out of the grains. If your corn flour has a blueish hue, it may be starting to grow mold. A discolored flour is a bad flour!
Why does whole wheat flour go bad so fast?
The reason: Whole-wheat flour still contain’s the grain’s bran and the germ, which are rich in fiber and other nutrients but spoil faster . As a result, whole-wheat flour keeps for up to three months at room temperature, and up to a year in the fridge or freezer.
Why is whole wheat flour so hard to store?
Part of what makes whole wheat flour nutritious also makes it difficult to store. Within this whole grain product is wheat germ, which contains a healthy but perishable oil that time, temperature and exposure to air will eventually cause to become rancid.
The freezer time shown is for best quality only — whole wheat flour that has been kept constantly frozen at 0° F will keep safe indefinitely. How can you tell if whole wheat flour is bad or spoiled?
How to tell if wheat flour is bad?
Fresh wheat flour has a light tan color and smooth texture. Wheat flour that is going or is already bad will start to darken and become crumbly as the oil in the flour breaks down. Smell the flour. Fresh wheat flour has almost no odor, while flour that is going bad or is already bad will have a mild to sharp sour smell. Taste the flour.
One more inquiry we ran across in our research was “How do you tell if wheat flour is spoiled?”.
If you store it at room temperature, however, you should use your eyes, nose, mouth and hands to check for signs of spoilage after only about two months of storage. Your nose is a good tool for detecting rancid wheat flour.
This makes identifying spoiled whole wheat flour easier than spoiled white flour. Spoiled whole wheat flour will produce has a rancid smell and should be discarded immediately. The shelf life of flour, or the amount of time it takes for flour to spoil, depends on a number of factors including the type of flour and the way it is stored.