Food Storage Packing - Do's and Don'ts

Food Storage Packing - Do-it-yourself Facts & Myths
http://learntoprepare.com/food-storage-packing-do-it-yourself-facts-myths/

The purpose of this article is to present specific details and recommendations for packing your own shelf stable foods for food storage, including what works and what doesn’t in creating an oxygen free atmosphere for long term food storage, and the common misconceptions of how to do your own packing will be covered. While there are many different types of dried foods that can be stored for extended periods of time, most folks are interested in how best to store grain and bean products.

Some material will be repeated in this article that has been covered in previous articles concerning the use of oxygen absorbers, storage conditions, and 30 year shelf life claims. ......

Some of the material presented here will contradict and challenge information available on the web or in some do-it-yourself circles. ......

Includes:
   

• Basics
     Methods of reducing residual oxygen levels when you pack your own
     Containers
     Personal recommendations and tips for long term pack your own food storage
     Storage Conditions
  

I use 5 mil or thicker mylar type bags for my LTS. The 5 gallon bags are too big for most of my food storage needs, so I've only used a few, but I treat them the same as my go to bag: 1 gallon ziplock top mylar bags. My first batch were just 5 or 6 mil, the latest ones are 7 mil for extra puncture resistance. I like the ziplock top so that when I have to open a sealed bag to start using it, I can use the ziplock top to seal the bag without worrying about whether I have power for the heat sealer....and it lets me expose less food at once to the elements than say a 5 gallon bag. Of course I can't get 5 of the 1 gallon bags in a 5 gallon bucket, but I usually can squeeze a bottle of soy sauce or a pound of salt plus a few small items before I seal up the bucket. I always put the mylar bags in buckets to give them additional puncture protection and for easier stacking in my LTS space. And I splurge on the food grade buckets, although technically my food never touches the plastic of the bucket...but it gives me flexibility later if I need to carry water or carry produce after I've used the contents.

One tip for actually packing the food in the bags: put the desiccant pack(s) at the bottom of the bag before adding the food. Then just before you seal the bag is when you toss the oxygen absorber packet into the bag and immediately seal it up. This exposes the oxygen absorber to atmosphere for less time, and keeps the desiccant packs away from the oxygen absorber since oxygen absorbers do need some moisture to work, but the oxygen absorber will be done before the desiccant packs have had time to grab all the moisture they can.

Another tip: beware of food with sharp edges. Corn was the one that got me the worst since as the oxygen absorber did its work the bags tightened down and then the sharp ends of the corn poked lots of holes in the bag, ruining it. So I bought a bunch of unbleached paper bags to put inside the mylar to provide extra puncture protection. That batch seems to have survived just fine, but of course I wasted a set of bags and a set of oxygen absorbers - the desiccants could be reused after a quick refresh (3 hours at 275F to recharge in the oven for the size I use.)