Moldy flour -- should the entire bag be thrown away?

I just opened a new bag of white flour and there are blue streaks on the surface of the flour that look like cheese mold. Has anyone encountered this before? I am thinking that mold somehow got into the flour, either before I bought it or after I brought it home. It was in our basement in a cabinet for about 2-3 weeks. My instinct is to toss the whole bag. Do other Food52ers agree or is any of it salvageable? Thanks so much. :)

cookinginvictoria
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8 Comments

boulangere
boulangere March 16, 2015
We'll all sleep better tonight for you, CIV!
 
Pegeen
Pegeen March 16, 2015
You might need a dehumidifier in your basement if you're storing anything important down there.
 
cookinginvictoria
cookinginvictoria March 16, 2015
Thank you all for your input and for confirming my suspicions. Bag of flour has now been disposed of. Normally, I would take the flour back to the store where I bought it to exchange it, but I suspect that storing the flour in my basement for a few weeks during a particularly damp Pacific Northwest winter may not have helped matters. I definitely won't make that mistake again! :)
 
kasia S.
kasia S. March 16, 2015
Good,better safe than sorry, if anything this will make you more conscious of storage for the future :) life is so busy it's hard to know it all.
 
scruz
scruz March 15, 2015
i read once, that regardless of your attempt to isolate and throw away affected food, that there are microscopic extensions of mold (meaning you can't see them) that go into what looks like undamaged/unaffected parts of the food. so, in general, for safety's sake, it would be best to not use the flour.
 
boulangere
boulangere March 15, 2015
I've never encountered this. That said, it sounds a bit alarming, and you are wise to question its safety. The bag may have been exposed to moisture at some point in its journey to your basement cabinet, which sounds like a perfect growth place for mold once the bag got there. I vote with the majority and say no.
 
JulieS
JulieS March 15, 2015
Definitely don't use it and I agree with returning it. Most stores will honor a return without a receipt.
 
ktr
ktr March 15, 2015
If you still have the receipt you could try taking the bag back to the store. Otherwise, if it was me, I'd toss the whole bag.
 
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