Mylar Bags

Complete Guide to Mylar Bags for Food Storage
https://www.primalsurvivor.net/mylar-bags-food-storage/?fbclid=IwAR1lsDreNPVSLKQkQAGPg4z_4gB3siPdkvBYpo1Eth7dxvqfNRMKZVoE-VM

When it comes to storing your emergency food stockpile, there are a lot of different methods you can use.  However, the most popular method is sealing food in a Mylar bag.

If you are new to Mylar bags, here is everything you need to know to get started – including step-by-step instructions for packing food in Mylar bags, shelf life, and how to use oxygen absorbers.   ---CONTINUED---

LDS Preparedness Manual-Mylar Bags
https://thesurvivalmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/LDS-Preparedness-Manual.pdf

Page 87

HOW DO I USE MYLAR BAGS?

Sealing food in Mylar bags is a straight-forward affair, but it may take a bit of practice to get it right, so purchase one or
two more bags than you think you’ll need in case you don’t immediately get the hang of it

#1 - The bags typically sold by storage food dealers look rather large when you compare them to the five or six gallons buckets they are commonly used in. That extra material is necessary though if you are to have enough bag material left over after filling to be able to work with.  don’t trim off any material until after the sealing operation is completed

#2 - Place the bag inside the outer container and fill with the food product. Resist filling it all the way to the top. You need at least an inch or so below the bucket rim left open to get the lid to seat completely. If you'll be using desiccants and oxygen absorbers place the desiccant on the bottom of the bag before filling.

#3 - When the pail seems to be full, gently thump it on the floor a few times to pack the product and reduce air pockets. Add any makeup food necessary to bring level back to where it should be.

#4 - Take the bag by the corners and pull out any slack in the material so that all sides can be pulled together evenly. Place your oxygen absorbers inside if you are going to use them. Now place a board over the top of the bucket and fold the bag end down over it keeping it straight and even. Place a piece of thin cotton fabric such as sheet or t-shirt material over the edge of the bag mouth. Using a clothes iron set on the cotton, wool or high setting run it over the cloth-covered Mylar about a half-inch from the edge for about twenty seconds or so until it seals. You'll probably have to do the bag in sections. Temperature settings on irons vary so experimenting on a leftover strip to find the right setting is a good idea.

#5 - When you've done the entire bag allow it to cool then try to pull the mouth of the bag open. If moderate pressure doesnâ€t open it, fold the bag down into the pail until you feel the trapped air pillowing up against the material and wait to see if it deflates. If it stays buoyant, your seal is good. You can seal on the bucket lid at this point or take the further step to vacuum or gas flush the bag. Once a seal has been obtained the bags can be left as-is, vacuum sealed or gas flushed. To obtain the most efficient oxygen removal the bags can be first drawn down with a vacuum pump and then purged using an inert gas.

Vacuum Sealing Mylar Bags

Once you have obtained a good seal on the bag, pulling a vacuum on the contents is straight forward.

First you'll need something to make a vacuum with. This can be either a regular vacuum pump, a vacuum sealer such as the Tilia Food Saver or even the suction end of your household vacuum cleaner. The end to be inserted into the bag will need to be of fairly small diameter in order to keep the hole in the Mylar from being any larger than necessary. This means that if you use a vacuum cleaner you'll need to fashion some form of reduction fitting. One such that I've seen is a plastic film canister with a hole drilled in the bottom and a piece of plastic tubing epoxied in place.

Cut a hole into the Mylar bag on a corner, making the opening only just large enough to admit the vacuum probe. Insert the nozzle and using a sponge, or something similar, push down on the material over the probe to make a seal. Now draw down a vacuum on the bag. When it's drawn down as much as possible, run a hot iron diagonally across the cut corner resealing the bag.

Gas Flushing Mylar Bags

Flushing with inert gas works essentially like vacuum sealing except that you're putting more gas into the bag rather than taking it out. You'll want to keep the entry hole small, but don't make a seal around it as above. Beyond that, follow the directions as given in Section III.B.2 - CO2 and Nitrogen. When you feel that the bag has been sufficiently flushed, run the iron across the corner as above to seal.

Flushing with dry ice can also be done, but it is important to wait until the frozen carbon dioxide has completely sublimated into gas before making the final seal otherwise the bag will burst like an overfilled balloon.

Mylar Bags-VIDEO

Watch this video to see the difference between foods stored in buckets WITH mylar compared to food stored withOUT mylar. RECOMMENDED VIEWING!

A good discussion on this question can be found at a prepper forum called Survivalist Boards.

how thick should your mylar bag be?
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=184239

Original post by ('123456'): Just was wondering I bought some from here https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/emergency_supplies/mylar_food_storage_bags.htm  and it says they are 5 mils thick. I'm sure this is addressed somewhere else on the forum but sorry I didn't feel like searching through tons of threads.   ---CONTiNUED---

Mylar packing food for long term storage
http://modernsurvivalonline.com/mylar-packing-food-for-long-term-storage/

Storing food continues to be my main priority in gathering survival supplies. Canned goods are the mainstay of much of my stockpile along with some freeze dried. Over the past few months I have added some additional food via storing them in mylar bags.

Mylar packaging has been around for many years. Used for many different products – mylar has a unique ability to present an oxygen barrier and protect food for extended storage.

So – how do I store food in mylar bags?   ---CONTINUED---

Survival Food Storage
http://apartmentprepper.com/?p=599

-SNIP-

I am finally ready to start storing.  

First, I gathered up all my supplies on the dining table:

      ---CONTINUED---

From Alan T. Hagan's 'Prudent Food Storage' publication:

A.5 MYLAR BAGS (pages 60-62)
https://survivalring.org/allhazards/index.php?file=Prudent%20Food%20Storage%20FAQ%20v4-Alan%20Hagan.pdf

The word "Mylar" is a trademark of the DuPont corporation for a special type of polyester film. Typically made in
thin sheets, it has a high tensile strength and is used in a wide variety of industrial settings.

In food storage, particularly for the long term, it is commonly found as a laminate with Mylar as the top layer, a very
thin aluminum foil in the middle and one or more other types of plastic films on the bottom acting as sealant plies.

This laminate combination possesses a high resistance to the passage of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, other gasses, water vapor, and light which is what makes it valuable for our purposes. Unfortunately, it has a poor puncture resistance so must be used as an interior liner for more puncture resistant containers rather than as a stand-alone package.

Food grade aluminized Mylar complies with US FDA requirements and is safe to be in contact with all food types
except alcoholic.

For food use, Mylar is most commonly available as ...   ---CONTINUED---

How To Repackage Foods in Mylar Bags With Oxygen Absorbers For Long Term Survival
http://www.askaprepper.com/repackage-foods-mylar-bags-oxygen-absorbers-long-term-survival/

  Shelf life varies, depending on the storage conditions and the food. You will usually see a range indicated for shelf life. For example, rice is listed as 15-30 years, and some sources estimate 10-15 years. Here are 19 more foods that will last for decades. Usually, this difference in keeping time is an indicator of the food’s nutritional value. For example, after 10 to 15 years the nutrients in rice will begin to break down. The rice is still safe to eat for 30 or more years under the right conditions, but it may have lost most of it’s nutrition.

Dry foods will keep long past their expiration date if they are packed dry and oxygen is excluded from the package. This means repackaging foods in sealed cans or mylar bags and using oxygen absorbers or a vacuum pump to exclude all oxygen. Many people use their foodsaver type vacuum machines to remove the air, sealing the food in a vacuum tight bag, then placing the bags into a larger Mylar bag with oxygen absorbers.   ---CONTINUED---

How to Seal Your Own Food with Mylar Bags
https://www.thereadystore.com/diy/3619/how-to-seal-your-own-food-with-mylar-bags/

Metalized bags, or Mylar bags, offer a great solution to sealing your own food. Mylar bags help keep moisture, sunlight, and oxygen out of your food – extending your food’s shelf-life! Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to seal your own Mylar bags.

What you’ll need

First, be sure to round up all of your supplies. It’s recommended that you seal more than one Mylar bag in a sitting because the oxygen absorbers that you place in the bags can only stay out in the open for a few hours. So, you can’t really open the O2 absorber bag and then use the absorbers later.

Be sure to gather:   ---CONTINUED---

How to Make a Mylar Bag Clamp for Easy Bag Sealing
https://www.tngun.com/diy-mylar-bag-clamp/

(SNIP) ... I have been searching for a solution to holding a full Mylar bag over the edge of a board while I try to juggle the bag, the iron, and the board while not dumping everything, burning myself, or taking to long with the seal so I won’t exhaust the absorbers.

While demolishing an old set of built in shelves I noticed one of the 2×4 boards had a mitered edge. I Thought to myself that this would be perfect to fold a bag edge around. ---CONTINUED---