Comments on: When were insects eliminated from flour?

Question: When were insects eliminated from flour?

tnygard — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:51:46 -0800

Hi all, I am doing some writing on the history of baking, and I was wondering when flour became pure. We take for granted the fact that flour in our grocery stores is free from insect larvae, twigs, and other contaminants. I have heard that the purpose of sifting flour was once to get this stuff out. Now we sift for nostalgia's sake or possibly to make flour fluffy. I want to say that flour became pure with the advent of large flour millers in the 19th century like Wasburn-Crosby and Pillsbury (both now are part of General Mills). But that is just a guess. When did things really get cleaned up? Do any of you foodies and bakers know? Thanks!

By: magicbus

magicbus — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:01:32 -0800

Flour is not pure even now. The FDA has guidelines on how much insect and rodent "filth" it can contain (scroll down to the very bottom for wheat flour).

By: awesomiste

awesomiste — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:03:14 -0800

I imagine these folks would be a good resource for you.

By: wocka wocka wocka

wocka wocka wocka — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:05:19 -0800

not answering your question, but just wanted to add that we still sift flour today because sifted flour is better able to incorporate liquid ingredients - far from nostalgica's sake

By: [ixia]

[ixia] — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:08:35 -0800

I'm not sure about insects, but throughout the industrial revolution, other stuff was intentionally put in.

By: ralan

ralan — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:12:51 -0800

If you think that flour is "pure" now, then you've never talked to someone who was a baker on a Navy ship. The pastry chef at one of my hotel jobs was a 20 year Navy vet, and he had some stories to tell about finding all kinds of crawlies in the flour after they had been out to sea for a few months.

Buy a bag of flour and let it sit on the shelf for a couple of months. Chances are good that you'll find some wigglers once you open it.

Also, you sift flour so it has a uniform measurement - since it settles and compacts in the flour bin, the scoop you take right after you dump in the flour can have a different weight than the scoop you take a week or so later after the flour has settled. That can have a huge impact when you're making 500 loaves of bread or doing any commercial baking. There is no nostalgia to it at all.

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:16:07 -0800

Yeah, I've always understood sifting to be to make the measurement more consistent. I assume going by weight would be even better (more common in Europe than the US).

By: dogrose

dogrose — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:17:24 -0800

Ellen Swallow had a lot to do with getting food standards in place; she was active around the turn of the last century. (She did a lot of cool things and is undeservedly forgotten.)

By: 517

517 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:21:27 -0800

How about The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

By: crapmatic

crapmatic — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:24:33 -0800

We go through flour very, very slowly in my house (not big bread eaters) and it's common for flour to go 9-18 months before the bag is used up. We've also gone through some turnover of the flour during moves, allowing new bags to sit on the shelf. I think only once have we had a problem with infestation. This is probably in part due to us ziplocing the bags once we store them so meal moths, etc, don't take residence in our cabinets. So IMHO I think there is indeed some process in place at a lot of mills that controls insect larvae.

By: theora55

theora55 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:25:35 -0800

For many recipes, I don't sift flour. But I had a lengthy battle with tiny flour beetles, and it made perfect sens to me that sifting is a great way to remove wildlife from flour.

By: 517

517 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:34:51 -0800

Better link to what I was talking about.

By: fiercecupcake

fiercecupcake — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:46:57 -0800

Professional bakers sift both to incorporate liquid ingredients more readily (as mentioned above) AND to combine ingredients thoroughly (though that's been questioned; I believe Rose Levy Beranbaum wrote her thesis on that question). They don't sift for purposes of measurement, because professionals weigh flour. And yes, flour is still far from "pure." I have seen things that would make your skin crawl.

By: scody

scody — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:03:25 -0800

Check out Food in History -- a fascinating read that contains some info about the development of baking over thousands of years, including the rise of modern milling and baking.

By: shesbookish

shesbookish — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:06:49 -0800

I was told that you should always put flour in the freezer for at least 24 hours before use so that you would kill off any eggs, etc. This information was just given to me a few years ago, though I don't remember who told me/ where I read it.

By: gesamtkunstwerk

gesamtkunstwerk — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:09:40 -0800

I keep my flour in the freezer because it lasts longer there.

By: The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:12:36 -0800

If you get your flour from a bin - you greatly increase your chance of infestation. I'm guessing it's more the packaging than any inherent improvement in milling.

By: Susurration

Susurration — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:31:31 -0800

I was brought up to sift flour as a way to add air to the mixed product. Before food mixers, or when mixing by hand (e.g. crumbles), it is difficult to get a light result from compacted flour. And yes, we measure by weight not volume in Europe. I've always thought that measuring by volume is very inaccurate, as it depends so much on the type of flour used ...
To respond to the "pureness" issue, I have kept flour for months in the UK and never had any problems, but in the US even a few weeks spawns creepy crawlies. I don't know if the UK milling hygiene standards are stricter, or if this is just a climate thing. We take food inspection very seriously -- but also we don't have the variety and frequency of bugs in the UK. It is too cold and damp for many of them ... :-)

By: pullayup

pullayup — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:33:03 -0800

If you're looking for something citable, you might check English Bread and Yeast Cookery. I don't have a copy here to refer to, but I recall that there was information about the history of milling/flour technology. Plus, it's a fascinating, fascinating book!

By: Kid Charlemagne

Kid Charlemagne — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:42:53 -0800

If you go back far enough you probably had less stuff living in your flour because you were likely to be milling it yourself, and might very well be doing that as you needed it.

It probably wasn't until later when where were lots of hands in the process and less accountability that you started seeing some of the deliberate adultration you are describing.

Now how much dust from the mill stone you got in a slice of bread, who knows.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:59:13 -0800

Now how much dust from the mill stone you got in a slice of bread, who knows.

Pretty much all commercially available flour has been milled on a rolling mill for at least the last 100 years. Stones are high maintenance compared to tool steel.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:08:59 -0800

...Wasburn-Crosby and Pillsbury (both now are part of General Mills).

Actually General Mills was forced to sell-off that part of Pillsbury due to antitrust regulations -- between the Pillsbury baking mixes and Betty Crocker, they had something like 80% of the retail baking market. J.M. Smucker owns the Pillsbury baking mixes and flour.

By: electroboy

electroboy — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:31:21 -0800

If you go back far enough you probably had less stuff living in your flour because you were likely to be milling it yourself, and might very well be doing that as you needed it.

More accurately, a miller would be milling it for you and taking his cut as payment.

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:32:25 -0800

You also sift flour because small droplets of sweat and spit can get into your flour, which will then clump and harden around the moisture. You don't really want that in your food.