Best before.

[skeggysteve]

Cooking tonight I needed some plain flour, something that I don't use a lot.

I had a bag in the cupboard but wasn't sure how long it had been in there so I checked the best before date

13th April 2215

Yes 2215, I had to double check!

I hope that it's not a misprint and the flour is OK! How do you tell if flour is OK to use?

Is there anything else that has such a long BB date?

[Cupramax]

Flour has a shelf life of 6-8 months so if thats a batch code from 2015 its "probably" OK. If its gone off it'll smell rancid so as ever with food, what does it look like? does it smell ok? Then it probably is.

[Moulder]

Check for Weevils, if none you are good to go...

[motco]

Moulder said:

Check for Weevils, if none you are good to go...

Love the forum name Moulder! Weevils are okay, you're gonna cook them! Added protein!

[wijit]

The "batch" code is actually called the Julien code. The number specifies the date it was made, the first digit (2) represents the year. I would suggest in this case it is 2012, although it is possible it might be 2002 depending on how long you've had it. The following three digits (215) represent the number of days into the year it was packaged, so this means your flour was made on 3rd August 2012 (or 2002!).
FYI, the exception is 366, that is for February 29th.
Weevils or flour Beetles and larvae are your only real enemy, but any sign of dampness is by far worse as that is the beginning of yeast and mould spores.
Best before/sell by/use by are the most ridiculous and misleading things in food, as a food technologist the best I can advise is use your nose. Generally speaking, if it smells bad, it is bad. Sardines included. And Mushrooms. But those are personal choices.
Hope that helps.

EFA, it goes without saying it is probably a typo on the manufacturers part.

[jet_noise]

skeggysteve said:

Cooking tonight I needed some plain flour, something that I don't use a lot.

I had a bag in the cupboard but wasn't sure how long it had been in there so I checked the best before date

13th April 2215

Yes 2215, I had to double check!

I hope that it's not a misprint and the flour is OK! How do you tell if flour is OK to use?

Is there anything else that has such a long BB date?

Apart from the obvious does it smell & look OK then it is there is an issue with flour and age. The gluten degrades(?) over time so if you need the flour for anything other than, say, dusting or thickening a sauce e.g. bread/cake/dumplings/batter then it's best to use fresh(er).
I'm not a chef or food scientist (IANACOFS).

On the long lived food question isn't that most Amercan of obesity-enhancing junk-food items the Twinkie the longest?

regards,
Jet

[skeggysteve]

Thanks for the replies.

I did check that there were no nasties in the flour and got rid of the top part.

It looked fine and didn't smell of anything other than flour. It was used to thicken a sauce which we'll be eating tonight so I hope it's alright!

Having said all that I think I'll chuck the rest away and buy a new bag!