Are you wondering how to package your food for long-term storage to be good when you open it a couple of decades from now?
If the answer is yes, then you are here at the right place.
Let us go through the best options regarding your containers as well as the right treatment methods to ensure that your food is good when you need it.
Referring to the packaging of long-term food storage, you will want to ensure that you do it right as it is a crucial investment, and you will want to ensure that the food supplies are taken care of for a long time to come.
Suppose you have just returned from the store and put your bags of sugar on the shelf and keep it placed on the shelves – it won’t last for twenty years down the road because the sugar will be hard as a brick, and the bag of rice will be infested with beetles – besides, the air will also degrade it – so this is not the right way to store food.
Here is the best way of long term food storage:
Only Store High-Quality Food
So the first thing that you want to do is that you will want to start with really high-quality food. When we talk about food storage packaging, we are referring to dry goods, such as flour, sugar, wheat, and grains – those types of things.
Remember – you only want to store super-high-quality food. Besides, it needs to be less than 10% moisture. For instance, if you plan to store wheat, you should choose wheat with lower moisture content. You will also have to ensure that it has a low oil content.
If you assess the two basic types of rice, brown rice and white rice, you see that white rice will store for three decades, but brown rice, due to its very nutritious coating and high oil content, can go rancid and, therefore, you cannot store it for a long time.
So, the high-quality food that you can effectively store for decades is the one that has less than 10% moisture content and low oil content.
Storing Food in Containers
If you want, you can choose the best shrink wrap machine to store certain types of food, but you can also rely on containers. The thing about containers is that they will hold whatever you are putting in there and ensure that it preserves the food for long-term storage.
Not all containers are created equal. There are some containers that will serve their purpose and do the job, but there are some that are simply the best. So, do your research and choose the food containers according to the different types of food that you intend to store.
Storing Food in Cans
It wouldn’t be wrong to state that cans are one of the best choices for food storage. They might be a little bit more on the expensive side, but when you assess their ability to shut out light, to shut out moisture, to keep insects out, overall, all these qualities ensure that food remains stored for up to two or three decades.
The thing about steel cans is that they create an oxygen barrier while preventing moisture and air from getting in and creating this wonderful little time capsule. Cans are the best choice for long-term food storage, but these can also be more expensive as they aren’t reusable.
Storing Food in Plastic Buckets
The thing about plastic buckets is that they are available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, which is also the primary reason that these are so versatile. If you want to stack food without wasted space, you can immensely benefit from square plastic buckets.
There is a whole variety of plastic buckets available – depending on your needs, and they all do a great job. And the interesting aspect about plastic buckets is that one’s personal situation dictates what sort of plastic buckets they will use.
For instance, you might find it hard to carry five-gallon plastic buckets, especially when you are older. In this case, you might want to choose smaller containers as these are more convenient than the five-gallon containers.
If you are using your long-term storage on a daily basis, you can immensely benefit from plastic buckets – you can just empty that bucket and refill it over and over again, so there is very little waste.
Another trick you might want to do for long-term food storage is placing food in its original packaging in plastic buckets. For instance, you might want to place powdered sugar in the plastic buckets by keeping it in its original packaging – just place it in the bucket and seal it up.
By doing so, you will keep the moisture from the storage room from contaminating the food supply. This storage tip works very well, especially with containers of salt that are a magnet for moisture in the storage room.
So, if you put those kinds of things in the plastic buckets and you just seal them up – it is a fantastic way to package food for long-term storage.
Storing Food in Mylar Bags
Spoiler alert – Mylar bags or pouches are not an optimal package to store something. Nonetheless, the thing that makes them really cool is that you can store your own food at home with these because all it takes to seal them up is a straight iron – like the one you use to straighten your hair with or a clothes iron.
You can also buy oxygen absorbers to store your food in these pouches. However, these bags are not as sturdy, and mice will have an easy time chewing through them. However, for optimal food storage, you can still put food inside the Mylar bags and place them inside one of the five-gallon buckets we mentioned before.
Storing Food in Glass Jars
Glass jars are an excellent thing – the size of the glass jars might put some limitations, but glass jars are excellent for short-term uses. The absence of air filtration makes glass jars a popular choice for food storage. Obviously, there will be light infiltration, but as long as the glass jars are being used for a relatively short period of time or they are placed in a cupboard where it is dark – you shouldn’t be worried about food degradation.
The best thing about glass jars is that these clean up really nicely. Once the glass jars have served their purpose, you can clean them and use them for water storage. You can use glass jars to store jams, peanut butter, and other wet and dry goods.
