My Food Storage Deals: Commonly asked question on storing your food storage

Commonly asked question on storing your food storage

>> Monday, March 16, 2009

Hi, I have a quick question for you. Your food storage lists says that oats and milk, flour and things will last 20-30 yrs if stored correctly. What exactly does that mean? Do I have to store oats in 10# cans? Can I buy oats and flour from the cannery and then put them in a 5gallon bucket and have them last that long? I am just not sure the best methods. I would appreciate some advice. Also, do you know if the cannery oats are even good? This process can be overwhelming!

Yes! Everything I have tried from the Cannery is excellent quality :) Buy the items at the Cannery in BULK 25lb. bags and you will save! They have awesome prices!!

As far as storing..here are my thoughts:

Don’t be overwhelmed!! Getting started is the hardest part, I promise!! You will find it really is fun and you will get great satisfaction as you see your storage room take shape and shelves stocked.

This is the deal with how long food lasts…I don’t worry about it!!! If you are only stocking up for a one year supply, even if you don’t rotate through the food in over five years, it will still be FINE! People get so worried about having their food ‘go bad’ that they frustrate themselves. The study that was done from the Cannery showed that food stored in #10 cans were PERFECTLY fine after 30 years. They came to the conclusion that many of these long term storage items can last even longer than 30 years, and MUCH longer than they ever thought they would.

I don’t can my food in #10 cans because it almost doubles the price. The only item I have in #10 cans is powdered milk from the Cannery. I don't rotate through this as quickly and I want to make sure it lasts and is fresh. All other items I put in the 5 gallon buckets or plastic containers, and I figure they will last as long as I need them to (5-10 years). If you are not rotating through your items in less than 10 years, you are most likely buying too much, or don’t need to restock as often. I have oats in my pantry that I bought right after I was married (nearly 10 years ago) and they are perfectly fine! I also have powdered milk that is almost that old and is still good.

The only exception is if you live in an area where you have to worry about moisture, mold, flooding, or rodents. If you do have these issues, then it may be wise to can as much of your food as you can in the #10 cans. If not, just rotate your long term food storage items once a year, check to make sure there is no weevil, and you will be set!

Hopefully that helps!

8 comments:

Jeannetta March 16, 2009 at 1:27 PM  

As for weevils, I freeze everything for 24hrs, and have had no trouble. It's hard to check #10 cans, so I have to go on a little faith there, but I even freeze my pasta right when I get it home.

Anonymous March 16, 2009 at 1:57 PM  

Thank you. That was helpful. I am one that gets frustrated with rotating and trying to keep up with how long things last, so it's nice to know I don't have to worry as much!
A couple questions for you: I have a cold storage like yours and was wondering how you did your shelving? Any tips or advice on how to build something like you have?
And I just needed some clarification. Should I be building a 3 month supply with the grocery deals I find and then a year supply with more of the basics like wheat and other things I can find at the cannery? I've been using coupons along with the sales and have found that my supply is growing quickly, but I realize these items have expiration dates, so I don't want to over-stock and then have waste.
Also, where can find those BIG containers you have all your sugar tossed in? Or what other alternatives could you recommend?
Thank you!

Jen Lee March 17, 2009 at 9:41 AM  

Where do you get your 5 gallon buckets? I haven't been able to find any that will work well, but then maybe I'm not looking in the right places.

Steve, Meghan, Elena, Sebastian, Ariana March 17, 2009 at 1:01 PM  

THANK YOU!!! That helped me a ton. I've got most of my 3 month supply and am trying to figure out how to store my long term storage. Your post really helped!

Lovingmyamazinglife March 17, 2009 at 4:02 PM  

Love your site!Can you answer a few more ?'s. If I buy 25# of rice or dry beans,bring it home put it in 5 gallon buckets,food grade gamma type buckets,do I need to use oxygen absorbers?I assume only if I plan to not open it anytime soon.My thought was to bring it home put it in 5 gallon buckets,and open it probably monthly to scoop out enough to put into jars in my pantry.But will all this opening the bucket up w/o oxygen absorber risk the food?Once I put it in the bucket should I just leave it be?Or is it ok,to keep opening it up until I use it up? And I saw all the sugar/oats you bought are still in their original containers from the store,and you put them in 55 gallon barrels I believe,do you just pop the barrel lid on and thats it?Or are you doing something xtra to store this.Like the oats in the cardboard cannisters,should I just leave those like that?Thanks for your knowledge.

Julie Avery March 20, 2009 at 8:16 PM  

I love this post. Thanks. I think that we often think that #10 cans are the only way to go----you have totally opened my eyes to better and cheaper ways to store food.
-julie

Ashlee June 7, 2009 at 7:58 PM  

Wow!!!
Thanks for the tip about not canning stuff!!! I always felt guiltly that I was being lazy not canning it in the #10 cans, one because it takes up too much room and two because it's just too easy to buy buckets at Macey's and place stuff in there I know we eat all the time. My ward is big into food storage I will pass that mesage along!!

Kiry December 4, 2009 at 9:36 PM  

Ladies I just got free 5 gallon buckets from my local donut shop. Most of their icings and baking supplies come in them. I just had to wash them out. Some of them came with lids too, I may just save for some gamma seal lids for the rest. Hope that helps.

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