Proper storage of cereals. What is the shelf life of cereals? How long can they be stored?

We store cereals correctly.

Secrets of a good housewife

At home, semolina, buckwheat, rice, millet, and barley are stored in dry, clean room with a constant temperature, well protected from rodents. Before storing the cereal, dry it by spreading it in a thin layer on a sheet of paper, then put it into fabric bags or paper bags.

It is necessary to systematically check the cereal for taste and smell, and if barn pests appear, place it on a baking sheet, dry it in the oven or stove, ventilate it, pour it into clean bags, and wash and dry the infected container.

In cases where cereals are stored in non-residential premises, the following method of protection against insect pests can be used: 50 g of chloroform is poured into a small blunt-necked bottle, tightly sealed with a wooden stopper, then the stopper is pierced through with an injection needle, after which the bottle is placed out of reach of children's place. Chloroform vapors protect cereals from infection by insect pests.

You can also protect cereals from damage by insect pests by using dried calendula flowers, scattering them on the shelves where bags of cereals are stored.

Since cereals and flour are hygroscopic products (able to absorb large quantities moisture), then with increasing air humidity they can become damp. Moulding of these products can occur at relative humidity exceeding 75%.

Rancidity of cereals and flour occurs due to the decomposition of fats and oxidation, which creates a rancid odor and taste. Humidity, elevated temperature and light contribute to rancidity of foods. The cereals most susceptible to this process are millet, oats and corn.

Considering the factors listed above, we can conclude: optimal timing Storage of cereals and flour in winter is 6-8 months, and in summer no more than three months.

The ideal storage for cereals is glass jars with a tight-fitting lid. In such a container you will always have fresh, uncontaminated cereals, and your kitchen cabinets will always be clean and tidy.

If you find bugs in your stored food, but you don’t have time to wash the cereal and sift the flour to get rid of these insects, put the cereal and flour in the freezer for a day. Or, if it’s frosty outside, take it out onto the balcony. All the bugs will freeze out, and all you have to do is rinse the cereal and sift the flour to remove their remains before cooking.

The best packaging for storing cereals at home is linen bags boiled in a strong salt solution. The fabric will not allow the cereal to suffocate, and the salt will not allow insects and mold to penetrate inside the bag.

Peeled garlic cloves placed in the corners of the bag will help against bugs that got into the bag along with the cereal.

It is better to store oatmeal, rolled oats, millet, buckwheat in a cool place, no more than +15-18"C. These cereals contain vegetable fats, which oxidize under the influence of heat and the cereal acquires a bitter taste.

Don't throw away silica gel packets you find in your purchased shoes. Put them in the cabinet where you store cereals, sugar and flour, this will help maintain the minimum moisture of these products.

To remove insects from cereals, there is only one acceptable means - ordinary water. The cereal must be washed several times with water; in this case, the bugs, as a rule, float to the surface, after which they are easy to remove. You can do the same with pasta. As for flour, it should be sifted twice through a fine sieve.

My personal experience: First of all, all sorts of moth weevils appear in my beans and quite quickly. Last fall I bought beans and packaged them in plastic bottles (there was no free glass container - although I suspect that plastic bottles they may evaporate something into the contents), I put 2-3 peeled cloves of garlic into the bottles and everything is great!

I didn’t have any success calcining the cereal - I forget about it (((, and then the taste of the rice turns out to be very strange.

Some more tips found on the sites:

You can wash out the weevils, but their waste products remain - and they are toxic. So it’s better to give such grain to familiar birds and pigs.

Lockers can be disinfected for preventive purposes saline solution, vinegar, baking soda.

To prevent the infestation of animals, you can put not only calendula, but also dry tansy, lavender or mint in the cabinets. Or you can use cotton swabs with essential oils of these plants.

Look like that's it. I look forward to your advice, share your experience, housewives!)))

Any housewife should have an idea of ​​how to store food, including non-perishable foods: rice and other cereals, pasta, flour, sugar, tea, etc. Temperature, humidity level, selected container for bulk products - all this matters. After all, it is often not proper storage leads to food spoilage. And spoiled products not only lose taste qualities, but also become hazardous to health.

One of the enemies of bulk products, especially cereals, is mold, which usually develops due to high humidity in the kitchen. As it multiplies, it destroys food and, as a result, releases bad smell, toxins are formed. Eating food contaminated with mold is hazardous to your health.

Insects may also appear in bulk products. One of the common pests is the Suriname mucoed. It's a brown bug that lives in flour, different varieties cereals, dried fruits. Unlike microorganisms, insects do not destroy cereals, but contaminate them. But at high concentrations, pests or their metabolic products can lead to food poisoning.

Expired products, although visually they look normal, lose their taste and beneficial features. Even if you know how to store cereals, it is important to remember that bulk products cannot be stored forever. If you prefer to buy for future use, first try to cook from products purchased a long time ago. And in order not to confuse anything, you can put stickers on the containers with the date the contents were placed.

The cereals that spoil the most quickly cereals- in 4-6 months, and flakes with all kinds of additives are stored even less. Rice can be stored for about 1.5 years, peas and buckwheat– up to 2. The remaining cereals are best consumed within 9-12 months. Simple pasta will last about 1 year. A pasta With various additives, for example tomato, it is recommended to store no longer than 3-5 months.

Carry out an annual audit of the kitchen, during which you check the expiration dates of the contents of the cabinets and, if necessary, throw away anything spoiled.

Basic storage rules

To avoid problems with products in your kitchen, carefully examine them in the store. Damaged packaging, sticky grains, foreign inclusions among the grains - all this signals that the product is not worth buying. If it is not possible to evaluate the product visually, for example, if it is sold in an opaque bag or box, be guided by the production date and recommended shelf life.

Despite the fact that production measures are taken to prevent the contamination of cereals by insects, unpleasant exceptions do occur. Therefore, before putting the cereal away for storage, it is recommended to check it again for the presence of mold and larvae and pour it out of store containers. Some people prefer to leave rice and other grains in plastic bags. But this is not recommended: food in them can become damp, “suffocate” and acquire an unpleasant smell and taste.

The cereal is suitable for long-term storage, it can be used at the production site or transported to different distances, including long distances.

In the practice of storing cereals, it is necessary to take into account the same properties as those of the grain mass. Cereals are stored at cereal factories, warehouses and bases of the Ministry Agriculture and food, less often - at bases, warehouses and trade and catering establishments.

Used for storing cereals various ways. The oldest and most common method of storage is in textile containers made from various fabrics. Linen, jute, cotton and mixed bags with a capacity of 50-70 kg are used. Also, cereals are packaged in small containers of 1-3 kg, stored in boxes or boxes on pallets or racks.

Storage of cereals can be carried out both in heated and unheated warehouses, but it must be dry, clean, well-lit and ventilated, not infested with pests of grain stocks, separately from sharp-smelling and perishable goods. Optimal environmental parameters: relative air humidity 60-70%, temperature from 5 to 15 °C.

Transportation of cereals over long distances is carried out in railway cars and vehicles. When transporting by rail, it is necessary to use absolutely dry, clean wagons that do not have any foreign odors for loading products. In wagons, sacks are placed on pallets at a distance of 0.5 m from the walls, leaving a passage between the stacks.

During rail transportation, the natural loss of cereals should not exceed 0.09% for a distance of up to 1000 km and 0.13% for a distance of 1000 to 2000 km.

When transporting by road, it is also necessary to use dry, clean vehicles in which no pungent-smelling substances were transported, and conditions of soaking or contamination must be excluded.

Transporting cereals in containers is associated with large costs, packaging costs, the use of physical labor, and sometimes leads to spoilage and contamination of products. The transition to bulk storage and transportation according to the scheme: dump bin of a cereal plant -> wagon -> tank - receiving hopper of a packaging factory can provide greater savings and better preservation of cereals.

Packaging and labeling

Cereals are usually packaged in jute, flax-jute or cotton bags with a net weight of 65 to 70 kg. Each of them has a marking label made of paper or cardboard, which indicates the name of the product, its type, grade, net weight, production date and standard number. A significant part of the cereal is packaged directly at cereal factories in single-layer paper or plastic bags 900 g each

Every housewife knows how difficult it is to store cereals. Either moths will infest them, or they will become damp and spoil. Unfortunately, such problems happen quite often, and not everyone can cope with them. But we will help you with this problem and tell you about the correct storage of cereals, which will help get rid of minor but annoying troubles.

Preserving cereals is sometimes very important, but solving this problem is not always possible. You've probably tried a lot of methods but nothing worked, and this is a common problem. The point is that you should properly prepare the dishes in which buckwheat, rice or any other cereal will be stored. Yes, specifically dishes, because storing them in bags will in no way preserve the quality of the grain. Let's look at what you'll need.

So, you can use special jars that are sold in stores and supermarkets. But why spend money if you probably have the simplest glass jar in your pantry. Under no circumstances should you use bags or boxes, you will get a lot of problems and inconveniences . How can you store cereals in a bag and hope for them? excellent quality- unclear. So first take out the jars.

Here the question arises - which jar in terms of volume should I choose? In fact, it doesn’t matter, but it will be more convenient to store in a liter or three-liter container. Naturally, each grain must have its own “house”.

The glass jar needs to be prepared. As soon as you take it out of the pantry or closet, be sure to wash it with detergent and sterilize it. Next, it should be dried and only after that you can pour the cereal. The next step is to close it with a lid. If you are going to store buckwheat or millet for years, then you can even roll it up, but if not, then cover it with regular plastic cover. It’s even better if you first put paper or a bag on the neck of the jar, and only then close the lid.

Storing cereals is a simple matter, but, nevertheless, many people make a mistake about where to place these jars. It is best to make sure that it stands in a cool place and is not exposed to sunlight. Of course, the rice will not cook from the sun, but fungus and bacteria love to bask in the rays and eat your rice or other grains. Therefore, allocate space on the shelf in the pantry for such cans.

In addition, you should protect them from moths and bugs. To do this, put a clove of garlic on the bottom of the jar itself, this excellent remedy against insects in cereals. But to get rid of these same “inhabitants” in the closet, put chestnuts or sprigs of lavender there. If you don't have lavender branches, you can use essential oil. You should also put bay leaves, they will absorb moisture and insects will not get in.

Besides glass jars you can use modern plastic containers that have been pre-steamed with boiling water. Of course, this method will not allow you to preserve your cereals for a long time, but if you do not buy bags, then it is quite convenient.

Now you know, how to properly store cereals, and you will no longer encounter difficulties in cooking, catching insects or using wet rice, buckwheat, millet and others. Good luck!

Although most cereals are quite cheap, many people get very upset when they find bugs and midges in their kitchen cupboards. These insects multiply very quickly: if they start in a bag with one cereal, then within a couple of weeks they will “occupy” the entire cupboard.

If insects are found, you have to throw away all the contents. kitchen cabinet. You can not only fight bugs and midges, but also prevent their appearance. The rules for storing cereals are quite simple, and if every housewife adheres to them, she will not have to constantly throw away fresh food.

How to deal with bugs?

Cereals are ideal products for the reproduction of insects such as bread borers, Suriname flour beetles, granary weevils. They quickly leave traces of their vital activity, which not only spoils the taste of food, but also often leads to poisoning. What causes bugs to appear in cereal bags? They may already be in the cereal when you buy it at the store. Manufacturers are required to process cereals before packaging, but, unfortunately, they do not always do this.

Many housewives, after purchasing cereal, warm it up in or put it in a freezer. So, if you buy cereal by weight, such manipulations will help reduce the risk of bugs breeding.

It should be noted that bugs appear not only in cereals, but also in dried fruits brought from Central Asia. Before storing, rinse and dry prunes, raisins and dried apricots in the oven, and then store dried fruits separately from cereals.

Shelf life

  • Semolina, rice, buckwheat and flour can be stored at home for no more than six months.
  • Hercules, oatmeal, kernels and millet are stored for only four months.
  • And polished rice can be kept on a shelf in a cupboard for several years.
  • Millet, rolled oats, oatmeal and buckwheat are stored only in a cool place at a temperature of 18 degrees. These cereals contain vegetable fats that oxidize in heat. If you store them at high temperature, over time they will become bitter.

Best packaging

The best “packaging” for storing cereals is linen bags boiled in a salty solution. The fabric allows the grains to “breathe”, and the salt prevents mold and insects from entering the bags.

Another a good option for storage - plastic or glass containers that are hermetically sealed with lids. To prevent worms from appearing in cereals, place a clove of garlic in the container with the product. IN winter period Cereals can be stored on the balcony in large, tightly closed containers.