Food shortages

[LizzieL]

I used to buy bread flour on-line from a mill on Berks (now Oxon) Large bag of plain strong white and retail size packs of a few speciality ones to mix in with the white to get a reasonable rate on shipping cost. but they have closed their web site since the pandemic " to concentrate on supplying retail outlets" I wonder where all the flour is going. Surely the panic buyers have enough by now. Or are people eating vastly more bread than they used to?. Whether they make it themselves, buy it ready made from supermarkets or buy it as filled sandwiches/ baguette/ rolls etc from sandwich shops / delis or the vans that used to call by their offices, the amount consumed by 65 million or so of us shouldn't have changed much.
   

[majm]

I am in New South Wales, Australia, where raiding and fighting over LOO paper likely became a focus. 

We order online,  then drive to collect it.   Each time I have ordered  dry yeast... nope, none lands in the pick up.... been that way since 3 March.... So my pantry has run out of yeast, at the mo. 

Rice was hard to get, but readily available after Easter.   

Fresh meat ... My freezer is getting low but there's still several lamb legs, chops,  and some corned silverside and scotch fillet ...... My need to worry before end of the month.

Fresh veggies... Well it is Autumn now, heading to winter ... some  Cauliflower ready in our own veggie garden,  spinach too.  I have so butternut pumpkins ....  but there's frozen vegs in the freezer.

Fresh milk ... have finally trained my OH after over 45 years of marriage to actually look at useby/best by dates.  ....

 2 x 2 litres fresh milk with a clear  10 days before concerns .... gets us through on tea/coffee etc and occasional  hot custard ... when he ventures out to corner shop to see if the rest of our local community are staying home like us.

JM

[heywood]

Reply #4 as chempat says - there is a shortage of the packing for flour. This was reiterated on tv a couple of days ago plus there is a demand as more home bakers now.
We managed to get some on our last Tesco order but there was no yeast. My husband uses a bread maker but is running out of yeast.
I make soda bread with yoghurt. I have ordered buttermilk this week so we shall see if it arrives in the order.
I made bread with beer last week- that was lovely - similar time soda cake.

[josey]

I was short of dried yeast for the breadmaker a few weeks ago & on a hunt in the local town I called in at the baker who said they'd sell me fresh if I ran out - so try a local baker. Also local [closed] pub who used to do a pizza night every Thursday now does them Mon - Fri for collection uncooked. They have set up as a 'reluctant grocer' & will sell bread flour & yeast along with local eggs and other groceries. So try a pizza place! They may sell you a small amount from their larger stocks.

[Gan Yam]

Morrisons and Asda have started to split their own bakery flour bags and sell it in kilo bags. Managed to get self raising flour yesterday for the first time in months.

[LizzieL]

Fresh milk ... have finally trained my OH after over 45 years of marriage to actually look at useby/best by dates.  ....

Wow - that's an achievement

We celebrate our 45th at end of August, so maybe I have to wait a few months.

[sugarfizzle]

I have been making regular sourdough bread for a few years now. I have enough flour to last me a while - some I bought before lockdown, also got some from Asda more recently.

Easy to make sourdough starter if you have got the flour.

Regards Margaret

[Crumblie]

I read an article a couple of weeks ago in which wholesalers have opened to up to normal household customers in order to sell the goods that shops etc. would normally buy but are just taking up space in warehouses at the moment. It might be worth trying to find out if any in your areas are doing the same.

[arthurk]

My local Waitrose has had bread flour of one sort or another the past couple of weeks when I've been in - though I do go early in the day. It's been dire in Tesco, though.

However, when I was running short before that I managed to order a 16kg bag online direct from a mill. Some have closed their online sales entirely, but some are open for a short time each day, so you may need to keep trying places repeatedly until you catch them. Try searching for "wholemeal bread flour UK" (or whatever kind you want) and see what comes up. In my case, the cost of flour plus delivery came to a bit more per kg than I'd have paid locally, but not massively so - certainly not as much as the rip-off merchants on eBay where you can pay £10 or more for a single 1.5kg bag.

It's a similar story with yeast, though I haven't seen any at all in the supermarket for weeks. I usually use Allinsons Easy Bake (for a machine), and currently you can get a 100g tin on eBay for about £10 instead of the usual £1.20 or so (from memory). Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I came across another brand (Fermipan), with sellers on Amazon and eBay, and as the reviews were quite good I thought I'd try it - 500g for a bit under £10, but smaller sizes are also available. I haven't needed to open it yet, so I hope it's OK - the flour I got was very good, though.