A long time Floridian told me that you can prevent weavils in any kind of
flour product by first freezing it. Then it will stay on the shelf bug free.

My question is why does this work?
Also, does this effect taste or texture of flour products?

Thanks, Kim

I'm not a food expert, but I understand that freezing kills the eggs
of any little critters in the flour, and that all flour contains those
eggs which will eventually hatch if not killed. I always put
newly-purchased flour in zipper-style freezer bags and store them in
the freezer until I need to open a new bag, and don't have problems
with anything hatching and crawling around in flour. On those
occasions I am out of flour and need to purchase more for immediate
use, I don't freeze but simply use the new bag of flour, and have
never notices any difference in the final product.


"Kim Yoshiwara" > wrote in message om>...
> A long time Floridian told me that you can prevent weavils in any kind of
> flour product by first freezing it. Then it will stay on the shelf bug free.
>
> My question is why does this work?
> Also, does this effect taste or texture of flour products?
>
> Thanks, Kim

WHOAH! weavils? new to baking - and new to florida - this one caught my
attention. first, to the dictionary:

weevil
\Wee"vil\, n. [OE. wivel, wevil, AS. wifel, wibil; akin to OD. wevel, OHG.
wibil, wibel, G. wiebel, wibel, and probably to Lith. vabalas beetle, and E.
weave. See<A HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=weave"> Weave</A>.]
(Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of snout beetles, or Rhynchophora, in
which the head is elongated and usually curved downward. Many of the species
are very injurious to cultivated plants. The larv[ae] of some of the species
live in nuts, fruit, and grain by eating out the interior, as the plum weevil,
or curculio, the nut weevils, and the grain weevil (see under<A
HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=plum"> Plum</A>,<A
HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=nut"> Nut</A>, and<A
HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=grain"> Grain</A>). The larv[ae]
of other species bore under the bark and into the pith of trees and various
other plants, as the pine weevils (see under<A
HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pine"> Pine</A>). See also<A
HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pea%20weevil"> Pea weevil</A>,<A
HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=rice%20weevil"> Rice
weevil</A>,<A HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=seed%20weevil">
Seed weevil</A>, under<A HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pea">
Pea</A>,<A HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=rice"> Rice</A>,
and<A HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=seed"> Seed</A>.

THERE'S LIVESTOCK IN GROCERY FLOUR?! Killed by freezing or not, won't we still
be eating organic dead stuff? I was going to buy unground whole grain and
start from there. What will I find THERE?

<<
I'm not a food expert, but I understand that freezing kills the eggs
of any little critters in the flour, and that all flour contains those
eggs which will eventually hatch if not killed. I always put
newly-purchased flour in zipper-style freezer bags and store them in
the freezer until I need to open a new bag, and don't have problems
with anything hatching and crawling around in flour. On those
occasions I am out of flour and need to purchase more for immediate
use, I don't freeze but simply use the new bag of flour, and have
never notices any difference in the final product.

"Kim Yoshiwara" > wrote in message
om>...
> A long time Floridian told me that you can prevent weavils in any kind of
> flour product by first freezing it. Then it will stay on the shelf bug free.
>
> My question is why does this work?
> Also, does this effect taste or texture of flour products?
>
> Thanks, Kim>>

"OhJeeez" wrote:
> WHOAH! weavils? new to baking - and new to florida - this one caught my
> attention. first, to the dictionary:
>
> weevil
> \Wee"vil\, n. [OE. wivel, wevil, AS. wifel, wibil; akin to OD. wevel,
OHG.
> wibil, wibel, G. wiebel, wibel, and probably to Lith. vabalas beetle, and
E.
> weave. See<A HREF="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=weave">
Weave</A>.]
> (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of snout beetles, or Rhynchophora,
in
> which the head is elongated and usually curved downward...

<snip>

> THERE'S LIVESTOCK IN GROCERY FLOUR?! Killed by freezing or not, won't we
still
> be eating organic dead stuff? I was going to buy unground whole grain and
> start from there. What will I find THERE?

Ever eat a hamburger? It's made of dead matter. So is Boston cream pie. So
is an organic health salad.

People don't complain much about cheese, as long as they don't know how it's
made. The same goes for yeast and sour dough breads, which rise thanks to
the respiratory labors of living beasties that die during cooking... but are
still there.

The same insect life you find in milled wheat and milled corn is also
present in unmilled grains, fruits and veggies, meats and milk products,
etc. What you really should do is a little research on insect consumption.
It's estimated that an average person inadvertently eats over a pound of
insects in a lifetime. And then there's the wholly different subject of
intentional insect consumption. Either way, the term for it is Entomophagy.

<BTW, don't sleep with your mouth open... especially in Florida!>

<< What you really should do is a little research on insect consumption.
It's estimated that an average person inadvertently eats over a pound of
insects in a lifetime. And then there's the wholly different subject of
intentional insect consumption. >>

i can live with a pound of inseccts in a lifetime, but if they're alive and
well in day-to-day flour, well that supercededes the quota...

(OhJeeez) writes:

>From: (OhJeeez)
>Newsgroups: rec.food.baking
>Date: 17 Nov 2003 20:26:38 GMT
>Subject: preventing weavils
>
>WHOAH! weavils? new to baking - and new to florida - this one caught my
>attention. first, to the dictionary:
.. . .
>weevil ...
>Any one of numerous species of snout beetles, or Rhynchophora, in
>which the head is elongated and usually curved downward. Many of the species
>are very injurious to cultivated plants. The larv[ae] of some of the species
>live in nuts, fruit, and grain by eating out the interior, as the plum weevil,
>or curculio, the nut weevils, and the grain weevil
....
>THERE'S LIVESTOCK IN GROCERY FLOUR?! Killed by freezing or not, won't we still
>be eating organic dead stuff? I was going to buy unground whole grain and
>start from there. What will I find THERE?


Sorry to break the news. Commercially milled flour is extremely clean but it
it isn't perfectly clean. There are standards which hold contamination to a
miniscule but measurable level. Quoting from one government standard:

5.3 Filth test. All tests required to determine compliance with
the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in
regard to insects, insect fragments, rodent hairs, rodent excreta,
and other filth shall be made in accordance with the Official
Methods of Analysis of the AOAC International or the Approved
Methods of the American Association of Cereal Chemists.


Here's an interesting discusion which, if your squeamish, you probably
don't want to read:

http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/misc/rathairs.html

There is a saying in the computer reliability biz that
the number of rat hairs per bushel of wheat isn't ZERO.
This is intended to be a rather graphic way of explaining
that almost nothing is really perfect, and that small
defects exist almost everywhere.

CAUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you like eating bread you
might not want to read this.


A great deal of effort goes into measuring the amount of extraneous
material contained in flour so that it can be kept to a level which
is neither biologically nor aesthetically harmful. Here is a detailed
description of the analytical techniques specified by the government
of Canada (in Adobe PDF format). Pardon the long URL:

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/food-aliment/...ume_4/pdf/e_ex
flp19.pdf

This method is applicable to the sampling and examination
of white wheat flour for insects, rodent hairs and other
extraneous material to determine compliance with Sections
4, 5 and 7 of the Food and Drugs Act.


On a much more pleasant level, here is a nice little essay by Roger
B. Swain, the science editor of Horticulture magazine and the host
of "The Victory Garden" on PBS television.

http://www.soils.wisc.edu/soils/poets/swain.htm

... we might as well invoke the old American proverb, "You
have to eat a peck" -- or pint or bushel -- "of dirt before
you die." It refers, of course, to eating one's words and
other such embarrassments. But it serves just as well at
mealtime.


Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to wash my hands thoroughly and
sift my flour just one more time...

Cheers,
The Old Bear

Ah, they just increase the protien level of the flour. But not by so much as
to turn cake flour into AP or anything. I live in Panama City, FL, and my
problem is with tiny moths boreing through my ZipLoc bags and placing larvae
in my flour. When they spin their cocoons, they leave spider-webby crap all
in it. Also in my poppy seeds, rice, anything that is a grain and contains
any fat whatsoever. I do not recommend plastic zip bags. I recommend a
large, airtight, thick-walled container like a 5-gallon bucket, into which
you can place all your little bags of grains.