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https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/33892/6168

For longer storage, keep white flours in the refrigerator in an airtight container. All-purpose and bread flour will keep up to two years at 40 F in your refrigerator, according to the Wheat Foods Council. They can be stored indefinitely in the freezer.

What is the best way to store the whole wheat flour for daily usage?

Should it be stored in the fridge and taken out daily for usage and then kept back?

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Aquarius_Girl
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Hermetically sealed (airtight) containers. If it's not airtight you will eventually end up with flour bugs and they will move into to your non-airtight cornmeal container, and anything else they care to infest that isn't locked up tight. The old metal tins or quaint crockery are not adequate to prevent infestation, and sooner or later you'll buy some bag of something that already has the bugs in it; they'll spread. I use plastic tupperware type stuff. It's cheap and effective. Beauty comes at a substantial extra cost.

Wayfaring Stranger
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  • You cannot get flour bugs if you do not already have them in something else? – TFD May 22 '14 at 08:46
  • @TFD They can always fly in the window, but they often come in with bulk products, like flour. If you seal your stuff, they can't get into it, and any that come with the package can't get out to infest other things. – Wayfaring Stranger May 22 '14 at 12:41
  • I use Polypropylene food service style containers like those made by cambro, thunder group, storplus, and others. A 12 Qt size would accomodate about 5.5 kilos of whole wheat flour.(http://img5.foodservicewarehouse.com/Prd/1900SQ/Cambro_12SFSPP190.jpg) – Didgeridrew May 22 '14 at 16:23
  • Ah man. One more pest to worry about. Weevils in my flour? *grumble* – Preston Jun 02 '14 at 04:19
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At home I use bail closure jars (for flour, and all dry beans, lentils, pasta,...).

They open and close easily, are airtight,
and (most importantly) look sexy in the pantry or on the counter top ;-)

Bail Jars

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Martin Turjak
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For short term storage, I use either the bag the flour comes in, or I transfer it to an airtight container, which I keep in a cupboard, not the fridge.

razumny
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Don't store daily use flour in the fridge, especially if you're making breads or pastries. Although it's best if all ingredients are at room temperature when you start in on a baking recipe, many of us will use eggs, milk, etc. right from the fridge. However, if you add flour to that list, you're going to wind up with a batter or dough that is so far off temperature that it won't mesh with the recipe's baking time and oven temp.

Jeff the Chf
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We use these OXO Rectangular 2-Quart Storage Containers:

http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Rectangle-2-Quart-Storage-Container/dp/B000VJ08SY

They are lighter and easier to open and close than the glass jars.

David Cullen
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  • Just so you know, link-only answers are often deleted. It's fine to include links in answers, but add some descriptive text if you do, so that the answer still stands if the link gets broken. – Chris Steinbach May 25 '14 at 18:22
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I store my large amounts of flour in an old gallon tin. I never have problems with bugs, I believe it is because I always throw in a couple bay leaves.

Wanda
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