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)
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