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Comment by ibash | Hacker News Reader

> after you put it into a real container

What? Who recontainers flour?

I do, because I find the bag to be messy. No matter how careful I am, it's impossible to open, take flour out, and close it without spilling a fine mist of flour around it.

With a container (I recommend Anchor Hocking's aluminium containers that have a rubber seal and a metal latch), I never have any issues. Open, carefully scoop out, close. Easier to wipe down, too. And the latch keeps stuff sealed even if the container falls over or is moved around. Easier to stack in a cupboard, too.

I also use this type of container for rice, grains, spices, pasta, etc.

We do, easy way to avoid bugs getting in there.

Guess it's related to the fact we don't bake that often, a 2kg (4.5 lbs) bag of flour can last us a month.

And do you in practice seen bugs in your flour? How often?

Because i too consume flour at a similar rate to yours, I don’t recontainer my flour and never in my life seen bugs in flour.

Yes, not terribly often but enough that the simple act of putting it in an airtight container is worth it.

Yes or more correctly, my wife and I used to until we started putting all such goods (flour, oats, rice) in sealed glass containers.

Perhaps you might not have been looking close enough. If you are not blasting through flour very quickly and you leave it in a bag, even clipped, you can get weevils and mites. This is not new. Ask elderly home cooks that you know. Putting it in sealed containers or jars, however, it can keep for a good while.

Extra protein?

Huh, I guess the likelihood of this depends on where you live. I have had this happen only once in my entire life, and a 1kg bag of flour can last me several months! (I rarely bake cook with flour)

True. It's apparently one of the most common pests in Norwegian households and in the Scandinavian countries, but not that common elsewhere[1]. Seems it might be related to our climate, with cold winters but warm indoor temperatures.

[1]: https://www.pestium.no/skadedyr-i-naeringsmidler/hvor-kommer...

Interestingly it happened to me a lot in France but never in Sweden. So it cannot be just about temperature

Everyone who has ever had to deal with food moths or weevils so many people I would guess. I also put it through the freezer before.

Air tight container is a game changer when it comes to properly storing dry goods for a long time.

I do, to maintain freshness and to keep the kitchen neat. A single bag of flour can last me over a year.

Also the bags sold in the US are so flimsy that they almost always leak flour everywhere just by sitting still.

I always pour flour from the paper bag into my giant plastic container. I haven't in almost half a year though.

You guys are talking about all purpose (wheat) flour, right?

We have a handful of containers in our house for such purposes. Flour and cat food are the first two that come to mind, and using them is exclusively a better experience than leaving these products in their original container.

That said, they often sit unused because we forget to actually do the transfer!

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