Maggots in Flour?!
Answers: I stored some bread flour in an airtight container but when I opened it there was maggots. How is this possible?
Those are mealy worms, and flour sometimes has eggs present when you buy it. Though it sounds unappetizing, It is a natural part of wheat. Left long enough, they hatch into tiny moth type insects. Even one of those in your house can get into cupboards and wreak havoc with grain foods.
Keeping flour as cold as possible will eliminate them. I store mine in the fridge. I've seen advisories that say to keep flour in the freezer if you are not going to use it quickly.
This happens all the time. It's because the flour had insect eggs in it when the wheat was ground. After a time the eggs hatch and you get maggots. This argues for not trying to keep flour for too long. The other thing you can do is to store the flour in the freezer if you plan on keeping it for some time. The eggs will not hatch in the freezer. Of course if you take it out and don't use the flour you will have the same problem.
PhD Food Chemistry and Nutrition
I suggest you get baking powder to store in your cupboard. Not the baking kind of baking soda there are 2 kinds 1 for baking and 1 for storing like a cabinet or refrigerator. It keeps bugs out of the cupboard and horrible smells out of the refrig. Or you can call someone like Loyd's pest control and they will spray your cabinets and it kills all the pillar bugs, maggots, and other types of bugs. Plus they leave these paper folded things in your cabinets to prevent it from happening again
The person who said it was there already was right, they don't come from your cupboards they were eggs in the wheat that survived processing into flour and hatched later on. Part of the reason why you should always sift flour before using, you don't always see them. Sometimes it happens with things made of grain like cereals and cookies and crackers too.
Skipper and Limeston are 100% right on. Which is why I keep anything wheat based be it flour or crackers etc in air tight containers. That way if they get into one thing they don't get into it all. Had to throw out a whole lot of stuff because of that years ago.
Yes, in our part of the U.S., weevils are notorious. They can be in your flour, your cornmeal, the bread crumbs you use for coating, your stuffing mixes, your cake mixes, your muffin mixes, your pancake mixes, your biscuit mixes. It is a good idea to store these type of wheat products in the refrigerator if you don't plan to use them on a daily basis.