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How to Check for Weevils in Flour
Appears in
By Darina Allen
Published 2023
Many years ago, when I was in hotel school, our lecturer told us we would need to know how to tell whether there were weevils in flour. We were appalled and doubted that we would ever be in a situation where we would need this information. But in reality it’s very useful, particularly for people who don’t bake very often and may find a bag of flour at the back of a kitchen cupboard.
Fill a dessertspoon or tablespoon with flour and smooth the surface with a knife. Leave the spoon sitting for a few minutes, then check. Weevils cannot be seen by the naked eye, so if the surface is even slightly broken, that means there are weevils in the flour. Cooking weevil-infested flour will kill the weevils but will result in a heavy-textured loaf. Wholemeal flour infested with weevils is even more obvious – when you look into the packet or bin, the flour will look dusty and brown on top.