Bryan Sumner
Bulk food storage is very popular these days among people who care about their families and want to save them from possible emergencies. Your food storage should be planned for at least 6 months. The concept of buying bulk is to start a food storage program at your home. This is an important part of emergency preparedness. It is highly important to have a 72 hour emergency food supply. This will help you to make it through a short term emergency. But if you care about storing dry foods for long term emergencies – then this article is for you. We are going to talk about useful tips on how to make your bulk foods last longer.
At the first place, you need to use proper food storage containers for your long term food storage. Make sure you choose hard containers that could not be chewed by rodents. Glass, metal, and hard plastic are good choices here. Remember that plastic bags are not appropriate for long term food storage.
Plastic containers do not provide a reliable barrier to oxygen. To extend the shelf life of your foods you will have to add oxygen absorbers as an additional oxygen barrier. For example, most dry foods will last for about 6 to 12 months when stored in plastic containers. But if you add oxygen barrier, your foods will last up to 20 years.
You could choose glass containers to store food products for emergency purposes. They could be found in several different sizes. Unlike plastic, glass is a true oxygen barrier. So if you seal your glass bottles air tight, no additional oxygen barriers will be required. The only disadvantage of glass containers is the fact that they are easy breakable. This means you might not be able to rely on them in the case of earthquake or hurricane, etc.
There are several types of dry foods that could be stored for emergency purposes. Various types of grains, beans, corn, flour, sugar, pastas, powdered eggs, nuts, dried meats are just some of the possible options. You could also store other products you like to eat in everyday life.
Air tight containers provide excellent protection to your foods for up to one year. Adding some kind of oxygen barrier is a great option to extend the shelf life of your dry foods to its maximum. Rice, wheat, beans, corn and some other dry foods will last for more than 20 years if stored this way.
Do not forget that your food storage could seem attractive to rodents and insects. However, if you follow the above recommendations you will not have to deal with them. Neither mice nor bugs are able to penetrate a glass, metal or hard plastic container.
Have you heard that food storage can save you from lots of problems during different emergency issues. Read more about food storage on this food storage blog.
Tags: emergence preparedness, food storage
Posted in Food Plants · March 10th, 2010 · Comments (0)
Each food product has a limited shelf life. When it comes to long term food storage you need to understand the factors that determine the shelf life of your foods. If you are just about to start a home food storage program or you already have one, this information might be useful for you to extend the shelf life of your foods.
There are four main factors that affect the shelf life of your food products. Let us look at all of them.
Temperature is probably the most important factor that defines how long your foods will last. If you put your foods into a warm place, it will not last long. The ideal temperature for food storage area is no more than forty degrees F. It is clear that not all home owners are able to achieve such temperature and maintain it all the year round. Even if it is warmer than 40 degrees in your storage area, you need to do your best to avoid frequent temperature changes. Make sure the temperature remains constant.
Moisture is the second factor that may spoil your survival foods. When choosing food for long term storage try to pick the one that has less than 10 percent of moisture content. However, as most of us do not have corresponding equipment this could be very difficult to achieve. That is why freeze dried foods are getting so popular. Freeze dried foods usually contain only about 5 percent of moisture in them. And that is why their shelf life is very long.
The third factor is the type of atmosphere in the storage container. Oxygen is the main enemy of food products. That is why many commercially prepared emergency foods are packed with Nitrogen. This gas works much better than oxygen.
If you want to cope with oxygen in your food containers at home, you might want to get oxygen absorber packets. All you need to do is place such an absorber into your food container and seal it. Oxygen absorber packets absorb oxygen from the atmosphere inside the container and create a slight vacuum. This allows your foods to last much longer.
Another factor to keep in mind is the storage container itself. Make sure you use air tight containers to ensure your foods will last as long as possible. When using plastic containers make sure they are made of food grade plastic. Otherwise they must not be used for storing food. Most containers are usually marked to let you know what products they could be used with.
If you choose to buy commercially prepared survival food, then in most cases you will not have to worry about the last three factors. You will only need to store your foods in a cool and dry place.
This planet gets “hot” – it is high time to be prepared. Find out more about food storage – this knowledge can save your life. Visit this food storage site for useful info in the food storage industry.
Tags: emergence preparedness, food storage
Posted in Food Plants · March 10th, 2010 · Comments (0)