Food - News
Is It Safe To Eat Flour With Bugs In It?
By SARA RYAN
Little bugs from the beetle family, known as flour weevils, are specifically attracted to flour (except whole wheat flour). Typically, keeping weevils from invading your flour is difficult as it starts at the mill. Moreover, these bugs are so hard to detect that it's almost certain that anyone who has used white flour has consumed these tiny beetles in some form.
Lightly infested products can be consumed safely. If you're concerned about weevils in your flour, you can ensure safe consumption by heating the flour before eating it (do not microwave the flour on its own, as it can cause a fire) or freezing it for four days.
However, if you have a really intense case of weevils, throw the product away because it could be spoiled or a source of foodborne illness. To prevent these bugs from infesting your flour (provided they aren't already present from the mill), keep it in an air-tight, sealed container instead of the paper bag it comes in, or just stick it in the freezer.