Flour - where has all the flour gone?

[NemophilistRebel]

Are people hoarding it? It’s been 4 weeks since I’ve managed to get any

Ideally bread flour but I’d settle for plain

I tried doves farm direct but they say they’ve been so busy they have stopped selling to public too

I managed to get self raising flour today in Lidles; there was a whole rack of it and the olain had just gone. I was delighted! I also got some bread flour last week from asda.

plain*

1.5kg bags as well

Hi managed to get bread flour by asking the local bakery if they would sell me some. Think I paid double price but worth it.

I got my Windsor Cake Craft flours today (16kg each of plain and strong bread). I forgot dried yeast, and they couldn't add it to my order, so I've got that coming from eBay (500g packet).

I'm sorted for flour for a good while!

I got my 16kg bag of Windsor bread flour today too!

They're enormous! I knew they'd be big, but I'm now wondering where to put them. 😂

I haven't opened mine yet - it's in quarantine!😂

I put mine in a big plastic tub that used to hold Lego! It's got wheels and I've rolled it to the back of the understairs cupboard. Used a couple of plastic cereal container for the cupboard, which took about 3kg.

I've transferred the flour into separate plastic bags of about a kilo each and I'm storing them in a lidded box meant for pet food. The enemy here is weevils. I've never had them in sack flour (which I used to store under the stairs) but once had them in a kitchen cupboard after buying a bag of flour from a well known supermarket.

Yes that's what i would be worried of too @Knotaknitter weevils and it would be bad enough in a 1.5kg bag but in 16kg it would be awful. Im lucky lidles flour has never let me down and I have a acouple of containers that hold 1.5kg (so I poured whole bag in) i have self raising in one and bread flour in another and my plain flour one is empty until I can get some. Just missed it at lidles yesterday!

Flour must be being used to make PPE, ventilators or perhaps in laying the foundations for HS2 even. There are bread, biscuits and cakes in the shops and with cafes, pubs and restaurants closed I fail to see why supply isn’t now outstripping demand. Panic buying has stopped surely.

@AvalancheKit they say it is to do with packaging because they are used to supplying restaurants etc with huge sacks and dont have enough packaging for the little bags in the supermarket. I heard they were thinking of putting the flour in basic brown bag packaging with a couple of labels on and send it to supermarkets that way.I wish they hurry up and just do that!

And panic buying has stopped but because of lock down more people are baking so just more people picking up a bag of flour with their weekly shop is meaning more demand than usual.

I've made crumpets, waffles, bread, biscuits, naan bread and cake in the last month whereas usually it's just bread. Partly it's because I'm shopping less frequently so I don't just pop out for stuff I don't have and partly it's because of the entertainment value. I'm saving an empty paper bag for sugaring doughnuts, it's years since I made those.

Dh got a packet of plain and a packet of SR from Sainsbury's anout 2 weeks ago. He hasnt been able to get any strong though. Ive been looking out for some when I've been in different shops but not seen any.
It's a packaging issue isnt it?

It's a packaging issue isnt it? Apparently so, but even if you are prepared to buy a bigger sack, it's still hard to get hold of.

@MogeatDog I know unless you are prepared to buy online and pay more. I wish they would just get the flour into the supermarkets as none of us are bothered about the little coloured bags

@notacooldad I managed to get white strong bread flour in aldi acouple of weeks ago and then wholemeal strong bread flour in asda. I havent got yeast so I can't make bread but the flour makes amazing bakery style cookies.

Oh that's good yesterday I'll try again tomorrow, I havent been in Aldi since DH did the shop a couple of weeks ago and only got plain and Sr.

I

Asda had the wholemeal strong bread flour at about 10ish on a weekday if that helps so may be worth going for opening tomo incase more demand on a Saturday.

I have investigated further and found that Tesco who own Bookers have stopped the latter from stocking certain hard to get products and that particularly includes flour. It has even been removed from their stock list - ie not just temporarily unavailable. This is partly why the smaller retailers and independent suppliers cannot get it. Perhaps try Tesco then.

Once for the Monopolies commission or whatever they are called these days when this is all over........

If you freeze flour bit by bit for about 48hrs it will kill any weevil eggs thus preventing any hatching. I usually sift after it's been frozen and save it in tubs ready for use when needed.