The coronavirus pandemic has had a huge and far-reaching impact on daily life, from lockdowns being implemented in countries around the world to shortages in various household items.
Previously panic buying was the reason why supermarkets were running short on things like toilet paper and bleach, but now there’s a new shortage blighting our shelves – people are having a hard time getting their hands on flour.
Here’s what we know about why this flour shortage has cropped up in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Why is there a flour shortage?
It seems as though the new trend of baking as a way to distract and entertain onesself during lockdown has led to people buying up all the flour.
Director general of the National Association of British and Irish Millers, Alex Waugh, has said that sales of flour in shops has increased since the outbreak and subsequent lockdown began, adding that the need to have the flour in small bags to be sold is partly to blame for the lack of flour in stores.
He said: ‘UK millers have been working round the clock – genuinely milling flour 24-hours-day-seven-days-a-week to double the production of retail flour in an effort to meet demand.
‘The equivalent of 3.5million to 4 million bags have been produced weekly by running packing lines at maximum capacity.
‘However, production is limited by the capacity to pack small bags, so even this is only sufficient for 15% of households to buy a bag of flour per week. Supplies of commercial flour are typically delivered either in larger bags or tankers and are therefore not subject to the same limitations.’
If you find that your local shop isn’t stocking flour, there are other options for you to carry on baking to your heart’s content.
For starters, there are plenty of flour-less recipes out there for a wealth of things such as pancakes, peanut butter cookies and lemon drizzle cake.
You could also make your own flour at home using just whole-grain, rice, dried beans, or oats, a coffee grinder or food processor and a fine mesh sieve.
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