Do I need to sift king arthur's white whole wheat flour?

amother

Sun, Jan 25 2015, 1:30 pm

Do I need to sift white whole wheat flour? I am in the USA, if that makes a diff, and it's King Arthur's brand

(anon because I am embarrassed that I am first asking this question after years of not ever thinking about it...)

granolamom

Sun, Jan 25 2015, 2:13 pm

I was told that I only have to sift flour if purchased from stores that do not have a fast turnover or if theres a history of finding bugs in flour from that store. there is one store near me like that, I no longer buy any grains or flour there because I do frequently find bugs. I think its less dependent on the brand of flour than the merchant. but as always.....aylor

amother

Mon, Jan 26 2015, 12:12 pm

granolamom wrote:

I have found bugs in US flour. it may be halachically ok, but I'm just saying...

Yes this. In our family we always sift flour, all flour (in the US). And I've found bugs a couple of times. I'd really like to understand this psak. Just because most of the time you don't find?

alef12

Mon, Jan 26 2015, 12:24 pm

amother wrote:

Yes this. In our family we always sift flour, all flour (in the US). And I've found bugs a couple of times. I'd really like to understand this psak. Just because most of the time you don't find?

THIS
though, since I started being careful where I buy (turnover) I haven't found anything. I still sift, just in case. it's so easy and besides for the halachic aspects of not eating bugs infested flour is so gross. It's not usually one bug but crawling Puke

who wants to eat that?

granolamom

Mon, Jan 26 2015, 12:33 pm

amother wrote:

Yes this. In our family we always sift flour, all flour (in the US). And I've found bugs a couple of times. I'd really like to understand this psak. Just because most of the time you don't find?

I think that is the reason for the psak.
the first time I found bugs in my barley (in the US) I called my rov because although I checked before I put it into the cholent pot, I found the bugs in the empty bag. the rov was so surprised that I found bugs in barley in the US that he called to his wife to tell her, she of course, was like, yeah I find bugs all the time.
anyway, the psak that time was that the cholent was fine because I checked the barley, but I couldnt bring myself to eat it.
so there's psak halacha and then there's the ick factor, which is psychological.

and oh, now I look at the bag of barley in the store before I buy, if you hold it up and shake all the barley to the bottom, you can sometimes see tiny bugs clinging to the top (empty) part of the bag.