I'm pretty sure all our regular flour is pre-sifted. Robin Hood, etc. I never gave it any thought, nor do I sift it. :-)

Jasdip, I wouldn't be surprised if it is, but does it say so in big print on the package?

I don't see how it's physically possible if we're talking about aerating the flour....perhaps that they just mean they've sifted out any lumps......

That annotation has been on flour for several years. I don't know why it started appearing. Regardless, silly me stopped sifting. However, in the last five or six months, I have started sifting again, and it makes a tremendous difference in baked products. So, my recommendation is to continue sifting. You may be correct in that the statement meant the flour had been sifted for impurities, pllllog.

Must be a factory sifting method to insure it is a consistently fine texture without foreign mater.? Any extra step will not remain 'sifted' /aerated during shipping. Might just be a remaining cary-over from the 50's-70's when everyone sifted at home with the whirley-gig hand crank sifters. Always something left in the bottom...a few tiny lumps or germ. Mom would put everything in with the flour so all ingredients blended and all went through catching any clumping. Lots of ingredients clumped like salt and sugars. That generation probably clung onto 'pre-sifted' on a label when it became available?

We were taught to sift, like cracking an individual egg in a small bowl one at a time before contaminating an entire batch of batter with a bad egg. Pitted olives might contain pits, rinse dry beans and look for small stones. bla,bla.

I only found one commercial baker, in a quick search, saying their is no difference due to shipping/handling. So they always sift as they go. Makes sense due to high volume and big bags of ingredients. Can't afford to have foreign mater or clumps in baked goods. Especially small confections. But they don't bother with something that will be later strained.

I did not dig deep, but agree it is a bit baffling why/when it initially showed up on packages but do remember when mom stopped using the sifter.

We use a scale. Wisk, blender, cuisinart dry goods to incorporate things that have baking powder, soda, etc. If I baked more often like cakes I would sift.

Plllog, yes. I just checked the store-brand flour and it says Pre-sifted" on the front, in italics. I don't think I've seen flour that isn't. I've never seen clumps or anything, and I never think of sifting.

I never cook anything needing that precise of a measurement, requiring sifting. If it seems a bit packed down, I might stir it with a large spoon before measuring. I cannot remember the last time I sifted anything, be it flour or confectioners sugar. If I did need it that precise, I would use the European way of going by weight rather than cups.

Sure wish we could get Robin Hood flour. When I lived in another state, we used it all the time.

Walnut, Robin Hood and Five Roses are the common name-brand ones. There are also store-brand which work just as well and are cheaper.

Years ago I used to buy flour that had tiny lumps in it when I sifted. I never see them now, maybe that is why.

I was really just looking for the unbleached bread flour, but I thought I saw essentially the same flour, some in bags that said sifted, and some in bags that didn't. There might have been another difference as well.

I sift to aerate flour when needed. I also sift sugar and almond flour for lumps. I sort beans by habit because decades ago they still had bean sized stones in the bags.

When I was a kid, pantry pests were common. The cereal and cookies were kept in a lower cupboard in the breakfast room, so they wouldn't share pests with anything else. The breadbox was in a upper cupboard on the opposite end for the same reason. Flour went into a metal can that held about 25 lbs. with a tight lid, which went over an oven with tall bottles, so tightly sealed as it was, it couldn't share pests. I have clear, pressure sealed canisters now, and I have had spice beetles hatch in them, from bulk whole grains, but they can't get in or out, so are just a little gross. 20 years ago, I had some spice beetles in a package of artisan pasta in a pantry cupboard, and I had to toss most of what was in there and leave the cupboard empty for awhile to make sure they were all dead.

Maybe "pre-sifted" has always been there but is more pronounced on the new packaging?

As I said, I couldn't find out anything about it in a search. Still a little puzzled. Maybe it's goofy advertising like the commercial that tried to get people to buy oil/butter blends because they didn't need to be softened before baking, never mind that it would put the success of the recipe into question. Play up pre-sifted, though it's done to remove impurities, to get people to think it'll be easier to bake with. This seems counterproductive. You'd think they'd want to promote success rather than turning people off to using their products.