Food Grade Storage Containers

I was able to purchase some of these containers for $2 each about 8 years ago. I'm not sure exactly where they came from, because I belonged to a sort of Co-op. We would purchase our dry foods in bulk. One lady would source these food grade storage containers and we would have a "Sealing Saturday where we would seal up our flour/wheat/rice/sugar etc together into foil pouches with oxygen absorbers, and seal them up with an Impulse Heat (foot pedal operated) Sealing Machine. Of course we all donned hair nets, gloves and aprons for hygiene reasons. Was a lot of fun :D

This is an example of the food grade bins we were able to purchase.

Mylar bags fitting nice and snug filled with rice and perfectly fine. Sealed August 2003.

You want to make sure the insides of these are very clean so you don't get nasty things growing inside while they're stored away. The outside can get as dirty as it likes, so long as the lids do their job.

What do you do with beans?

Beans

Soaking and cooking beans before mixing them with other recipe ingredients results in tender beans and can minimise final cooking time.

Overnight Soaking

For each pound (.45kgs) of beans, dissolve 2 tsp salt in 6 cups of water. Wash the beans, add them to the salted water and soak them overnight.

Quick Soaking

For each pound (.45 kgs) of beans, bring 8 cups of water to boiling. Wash the beans, add them to the boiling water and boil them for 1 minute. Remove the beans from the heat, cover them, and soak them fro 1 hour.

Cooking Soaked Beans

For each pound of beans, dissolve 2 tsp salt in 6 cups of hot water; bring it to boiling. Add the soaked beans; boil gently, uncovered, adding boiling* water if needed to keep the beans covered with water. Cook until the beans are tender. You can expect 6-7 cups of cooked beans per pound of dry beans.

Cooking Old, Hard Beans

Wash and sort the beans to remove any discoloured beans or foreign material. For each cup of dry beans, add 2 1/2 cups hot tap water and 2 tsp baking soda. Soak overnight. Drain and rinse two times, then add water to cover the beans. Cook until tender and soft (about 2 hours), adding more boiling* water as needed. Adding a tablespoon of oil will cut down on foam as the beans cook. Stored beans should be rotated regularly. They continue to lose moisture and will not reconstitute satisfactorily if kept too long.

Pressure cook old beans for 20 minutes and they will be soft.

*Note: if you add non-boiling water to beans while they are cooking, the beans will be tough. This holds true for all dried beans.

Basic Food Storage

These are the suggested amounts per adult for one year.

I'm not suggesting you go out and buy these all in bulk, that would make you a 'siege storer', rather work out what your family would eat and store accordingly. Don't forget to rotate your food storage.

Grain
Including wheat, flour, rice, corn, oatmeal and pasta 181kg

Milk, dry
Non-fat, regular, instant or canned (5 cans = .45 kg) 7.5kg

Sugar
Sugar or honey 29.5kg

Salt 3.5kg

Fats
Dripping (1kg = 1 litre) or Vegetable oil 9.5 litres

Legumes 29.5kg
Including pinto beans, navy beans, red beans, spit peas, lentils or soy beans

Water 53 litres

It is impractical for most families to store a year's supply of water. 53 litres per person is a suggested minimum reserve.

The children's percentage of an adult portion of water is: 0-3 years = 50%, 4-6 years = 70%, 7-10 years = 90%.

7.5 kgs of milk provides approximately one glass of milk per day. Children and pregnant or nursing mothers will require more.

Oxygen Absorbers

This information was provided with my pack of 100 oxygen absorbers. It is useful information, and I'll re-type it for future reference.



How are they used?

• To lower the oxygen content in containers of packaged foods



• Helps preserve product quality and protect the stored food from insect infestation.

What are they made of?

• Elemental iron mixed with a moisture absorbing material.
• Packet covers are made of a semipermeable material that allows oxygen and moisture to enter, but does not allow the contents of the packets to leak out.

How do they work?

• When moisture is absorbed into the packets, it causes the iron to rust. The process of oxidising the iron absorbs the oxygen from the package atmosphere.
• Temperature and the moisture level in the container determine the rate of the reaction.
• 'Ageless' absorbers are rated for 300cc of oxygen each. With their reserve capacity each absorber has adequate capacity for up to 4 litres of properly packaged food.

Is this the same as vacuum packaging?

• Not quite. The absorbers remove only the oxygen.
• Air is about 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen. The residual air in the container is mostly nitrogen, which will not affect the food.

What types of containers can be used with oxygen absorbers for food storage?

• Containers that are a barrier against moisture and oxygen.
• Foil pouches (mylar bags), metal cans with seamed lids, glass canning jars (and those glass jars with screw top lids), and PETE plastic bottles.

Directions for using Oxygen Absorbers

1. Cut open the top of the bag of absorbers. Do not cut open the individual absorber packets.

2. Remove the number of absorbers that you will use in the next 30 minutes.

3. Reseal the supply of absorbers by one of any of the following methods:

(i) Seal the absorber bag with an impulse heat sealer

(ii)Place the absorbers into glass canning (screw top lid) jars. 500 ml will hold 25 absorbers.

4. Place one absorber into each container.

5. Remove additional groups of absorbers, as needed, during packaging.

STORE WHAT YOU EAT AND EAT WHAT YOU STORE

The most important thing to remember when starting your food storage plan is:-

Store what you eat and eat what you store!

This is especially important if you are on a tight budget for purchasing with your food storage. Do not waste food. If you have something stored that you cannot use, maybe you can exchange that item with another family for something you do use.

Start making your own bread, use half milk and half powdered milk each day and gradually increase the amount of powdered milk you use.

Work out what your family eats and the amounts used over a 2 week period and then start working out the amount you would need for 12 months or even longer.

Try new recipes using food storage. If your family likes it, then you can include the ingredients in your list. The Internet is an amazing place for recipes.

The next thing I want to discuss is the storage life of foods and how to correctly store them to maximise the length of time they can be stored.

Four factors that affect food storage:

Factor #1: The temperature:
Temperature has more to do with how long well dried foods store than anything else. The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) states, "Each 5.6 Degree C drop in temperature doubles the storage life of the food". Obviously there is a limit as to how far this statement can be taken. Basically, it holds true from room temperature down to freezing. The temperature must remain stable. Shifts in temperature can cause deterioration.

Constant storage Temp in Degrees C Storage life in years
5 degrees - 40 yrs
10 degrees - 30 yrs
15 degrees - 20 yrs
20 degrees - 10 yrs
25 degrees - 5 yrs
30 degrees - 2.5 yrs
35 degrees - 1.25 yrs

Note: the above chart is not for a specific food, but is a general guide.

Factor # 2: Product moisture content:
Food with excess moisture can spoil right in their containers. This is an important consideration when packing food with dry ice as moisture condenses and freezes on the outside of the dry ice. For long term storage, grains should have a moisture content of 10% or less. It is difficult to accurately measure this without special equipment.

Factor #3: Atmosphere the product is stored in:
Food packed in air don't store as well as in oxygen free gases. This is because air contains oxygen which oxidises many of the compounds in food. Food storage companies have a couple of different processes for removing the oxygen:

• Displacing the oxygen: This is done by purging out all the air in the product with an inert gas. Nitrogen is almost always used because it is the most inert gas known. People doing all their own packing occasionally use dry ice which gives off carbon dioxide gas, and probably works just about as well.
• Absorb the oxygen: Oxygen absorber packets do just that. Air contains about 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, leaving about 1% for the other gases. If the oxygen is absorbed, what remains is 99% pure nitrogen in a partial vacuum.

If oxygen absorber packets are used, care must be taken to use a storage container that can stand some vacuum. Mylar (foil pouches) with oxygen absorbers are not affected by the vacuum.

Factor #4: The container the product is stored in:

To get the best storage life out of your product it must have a hermetic (air tight) seal. Containers that do this well are:

• #10 cans (ones your standard spaghetti or baked beans come in)
• Sealable food storage buckets
• Sealable food quality metal or plastic drums.

Whatever container you use, be sure it is food grade as your product can be tainted with whatever the container is made from. The base of the container should be stamped with the letters HDPE and the triangle of arrows with the number 2 inside. This denotes that it is food grade plastic.

What to store?

In order to know what to put in your food storage...you first need to determine who will be eating the food. There are three choices; bugs, the sewer system or your family. You decide!

If you do not store your food properly; moths, weevils, bugs or mice will get it, no matter how well you store your food. If you do not choose to store the right foods and rotate your supply, nobody will eat it.

The aim is for you to store the right foods, rotate your foods, and your family will eat it.

Remember the SIEGE MENTALITY.

They store foods with the vision that in the not too distant future every family will be sequestered into their own "bunker" - fending off scavengers.

PRACTICAL AND PROVIDENT assume that when the storage will be used it will be most likely during periods of unemployment or storms, which make getting food impossible. That during this crisis, life will go on pretty much the way it has always gone except that you will be eating from food storage and not from the shops.

On the surface, siege food is easier. There are only a few foods that need to be stored and the amounts to store have been worked out for you already. But there are some drawbacks. Siege food is workable. There is a lot of work to prepare the meals, a lot of adjustment on the part of the families, but it is possible. Here is a list of some of the problems that must be solved:-

Leavening Agents

Where is the yeast?

Just about everything you can do with wheat requires yeast or baking powder or sourdough starter.

Here is a rule of thumb:

- Half a pound of yeast

- One pound of baking powder

- One pound of baking soda

per person per year

Yeast is a living thing and it will die on you. Store it in the freezer and rotate . Dispose of it after it has reached expiration date. Dead yeast is good for nothing.

Water

If you are going to rely on wheat and beans and powdered milk, you're going to need to store over and above amounts of water to what is recommended to drink.

Remember it is recommended that we store two weeks worth of water only.

What and beans are useless without first soaking them in water. Powdered milk is useless unless made up with water. Plan on three cups of water to one cup of wheat or beans.

Power

What and beans need to be cooked. There is not much you can do without this process. It is against the law in Australia to store kerosene or petrol, so the very thought of storing flammable liquid is out of the question.

Honey

For children under the age of one, honey is a no-no. Honey causes Botulism in young children. Botulism is fatal. Use sugar instead.

Non-Fat Powdered Milk

Children should not drink non-fat or low-fat milk. Fat is a vital building block for young children's bodies.

Wheat and Lactose Intolerance

"In our family, we spent a year of our early marriage as food fanatics. Out went the sugar, the white flour, anything processed - even red meat for a little while. We knew we had to ease into healthy eating. We did everything right. incorporating whole wheat flour into bread recipes with white flour, adding more as time passed and reducing more of the white processed flour. Finally we reached the point of exclusively using our own stone ground flour.

We felt wonderful.

Then the body started telling us there was a problem. It would not tolerate anything with whole wheat in it. There more we ate, the more the intolerance grew.

Finally we gave up and returned to our pre fanatic lifestyle. We can tolerate small amounts of wholewheat".

Be aware of food allergies.

Be aware of diabetics.

Human Tastes

We need variety in our diet.

Week 2 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

Week 2 $10 challenge

3 kgs sugar and 1 box salt

Week 2 $20 challenge

5 kgs sugar and 1 box salt

We are storing sugar now because due to the floods in Qld, the prices are about to rise. Sugar is also used in our food storage as an ingredient in lots of things (including bread) so is a good one to store.

Salt is used as a seasoning. About 1/4 of a tsp is good for you (per day), and we are so used to having some salt in our food that it would taste very bland if we suddenly had to cut it out because we were using food storage.

The best salt to purchase is one with Iodine. Some people's bodies cannot tolerate Iodene though, and if you can't, store something else. You can also store things like chicken salt, rock salt or dried herbs instead as a seasoning if you already have a supply of salt, for variation purposes as well.