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This is a simple guide on how to preserve food for long term storage and so here I’m going to throw out a handful of ideas for inexpensive long-term food storage for you.
This is your typical prepper pantry and I’ll tell you that this food here, I would regard as being short-term I would do something like this for a 3 to 5-year setup.
Assuming there is proper rotation all this food has been either processed packaged or is exposed to the open air – as a result, most of this won’t be so good after 3 to 5 years.
In this tutorial, we’ll discuss how to properly store food so that you can get the most out of it.
How to Preserve Food for Long Term Storage Guide:
- Now firstly, you will want to store your foods in a cool dry pest free, and dark environment. This goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyways. The cooler, dryer, and the darker the better!
- Next, make sure your shelving does not go all the way to the floor.
Let there be at least a five-inch gap before the first. Like you see in the supermarket. There are two reasons for this. First, it helps preserve the food if there was Flooding, and second, it makes it harder for rodents to access the food. - Pick up some food-grade buckets, typically you can get these for free from your local supermarket’s bakery department, they often give them away if you ask.
if not you can usually find them fairly cheap, you can order them off Amazon. - Packaging food with good plastic, in mylar, are good to work with if there was any moisture at all I would not recommend the use of plastic mylar because as they break down they will affect the quality of the food, eventually break down in the packaging and get into the food supply.
This is the reason why even water that is stored in plastic bottles needs to be rotated. - Oxygen absorbers, to put it simply, it’s a pouch that when exposed to the air in a confined space uses up the available oxygen leaving only the atmosphere which is mostly nitrogen and without oxygen, there is little to no breakouts.
Its decomposition requires oxygen it is not unsafe for oxygen absorbers to be in direct contact with the food, remember as long as it’s dry goods. Oxygen absorbers placed on food in mylar or plastic storage bags that are inside a food-grade bucket can create an oxygen barrier to protect food for long-term food storage.
They can also be heat-sealed to keep for mylar bags and cost around 20 to $25 for a package of 50. And again, you can get these at Amazon.com. Just look up oxygen absorbers. Remember, they won’t affect the food, and be sure to quickly seal whatever you put in with the absorber because the absorber begins to work immediately when it’s exposed to open if it’s the mylar bag you can even use an iron to heat seal the ends together and make it airtight. - Could also vacuum seal and be sure to be thorough, as the remaining air could cause decay. But, if your dry goods are properly sealed with an oxygen absorber you should be fine. Good vacuum sealers are more expensive to deal with you. you could end up spending $200 or more for a decent sealer. it really depends on the quality of the machine or if you want to go all out. Or if you want to go with both methods together.
- when you’re done packing your container clearly mark what the product is and clearly write the date on it remember just because you’re putting this food up for the long term doesn’t exempt it from rotation.
You should still plan on eating it apocalypse or not. I would also throw some silica pouches in the bucket to help keep moisture away from the food packages themselves. Don’t put silica in contact with the food just put it in the buckets.
Conclusion
Remember! This is just storage of dry goods. I’m not talking about anything with liquid moisture or oils. There are other methods of displacing oxygen, such as the use of nitrogen from nitrogen tanks. This is sketchy and you got to be really good at what you’re doing. The nitrogen gets very expensive, and oxygen absorbers are a lot cheaper to work with anyway.
There is also a method that involves the use of dry ice but I’m not too fond of the dry ice method because, even though dry ice has no specific moisture and it does attract moisture from out of the atmosphere around it, so you could still end up leaving moisture in your packaging, so be leery of that.
For those of you who are new to this idea, I hope you found this guide helpful. Now you know how to preserve food for long term storage If you did enjoy this content please do give it a share if you don’t mind. I appreciate any feedback I receive so comment what you think below. Happy prepping folks!
