The mixed developer is slightly yellow as mentioned above but the
powder should be pure white. Any indication of a yellow or brown color
is a sign the developing agents have begun to oxidize. Since this
shows that the bag is leaking other components which can be oxidized
will also be. This is mostly the Sodium Sulfite. Sulfite performs
several functions in developers but one of them is to protect the
developing agents by preferentially absorbing oxygen. The sulfite is
oxidized to sulfate. Sulfate is white but doesn't absorb oxygen since
its already oxidized. Metol and Hyroquinone both generate a yellow dye
as they oxidize. When badly oxidized Dektol looks like coffee grounds
and smells awful, probably from the Hydroquinone. I've opened a couple
of bags of Dektol that looked like this. Bought very cheap at a camera
sale, they were no bargain. I tried mixing one out of curiousity. The
resulting liquid was also nearly black. I tried a bit of fogged paper
in it, it simply stained the paper. Old devloper in sealed cans is
probably OK. These cans were hermitically sealed. The bags are made of
a layered combination of paper and metalized plastic. For some reason
they tend to become leaky and don't usually have a very long shelf
life. Kodak has recently changed its packaging to a metalized plastic
which is seamed on only one side and should be more reliable. IMHO
nothing will ever match the old tin cans.:-)

Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@ix.netcom.com