I get the food grade buckets with sealing lids from the local grocery store bakery. I have to clean the icing out of them but they are free. Also check with your Wal-Mart bakery. They sell the buckets for $1.00 cleaned out. I simply clean them out and then poor in the food item. I just opened a bucket of rice that was 4 years old the other day and there were no issues. Which reminds me, I need to grab another 50lb bag from Sams.

great write up

You just gave me some stuff to do over xmas break. Gonna see if the neighbors want in too.

Originally Posted By colklink: Originally Posted By zoe17: Is there a big advantage from using mylar bags to using foodsaver bags and vac sealing? I have been using the Tila and vac sealing and then placing in buckets/bins/totes. Just wondering if the mylar has an advantage over foodsaver? +1, I allready have a vacume saver.

mylar wont leech smells etc . plastic isnt as water tight over time. take frezzer bag, fill with italian dressing,, youll smell the dressing after a few days.....mylar doesnt do that once it is sealed thats it.

Originally Posted By zoe17: Is there a big advantage from using mylar bags to using foodsaver bags and vac sealing? I have been using the Tila and vac sealing and then placing in buckets/bins/totes. Just wondering if the mylar has an advantage over foodsaver?

Folks if youll refer to training film tremors 2 burt clearly states plastic is not an oxygen barrier...they are fine for short term but when you talk years oxygen will get in and allow things to go bad........and +1 on the mylar in a vacum sealer.....anyone try it ??

How short a term are you talking? In a 1 gallon zip lock double seal, and then a 5 gallon food grade bucket, and then stored in a clean basement? I bet wheat lasts 10+ years under those conditions. Moisture's the real enemy, not the minute amounts of oxygen that gets through.

Yes, mylar is better, but at what cost? In the mean time get some rice/beans/wheat and zip locks and get some food stored. When you see the mylar bags and the vacuum sealer and get it perfect, redo it. If you don't and SHTF in 3 months, be glad you didn't wait around looking for the perfect mylar bags."

I agree with the "do something even if it's wrong" thing. Seeing as there is a LOT of people out there now that want to wait until they get the perfect setup, until they get "all the data", etc. etc. it usually drags into where they never take any forward action. I pity there hungry families when the time comes.


Having 20+ years of experience in storing food in various climates, putting 80% of it up myself mostly in superpails and #10 cans, I can tell you that most of the FOOD GRADE PLASTICS- i.e, the ziplock type baggies are designed simply for short term use. Most plastics now a days (the lighter ones) are designed to BIODEGRADE. You can thank the environazi tree huggin granola crunching hippies for that.

Also, thin plastics like that are NOT vapor barriers so 1. they won't hold oxygen out long term and 2. they WILL ALLOW in various gas vapors. So if you now or if there is a chance in the future that where you are storing your food has any gas smells, chemical smells, etc. it WILL enter into your food without mylar. That's the reason why using soda pop bottles isn't too smart also.

Even the basic grains are getting more and more expensive. We should avoid "stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime" by spending the couple of bucks to get mylar and o2 absorbers versus trying these various half way methods. THAT is the way professional packers pack and if you do it properly with WHOLE GRAINS (flour won't store long term IME, that's why you grind your own) your grandkids will be rotating it for you.

For the "do it once and do it right" crowd, mylars and oxygen absorbers is the way to go. Sure if you gotta do something and for whatever reason can't buy the mylars at $2. or less each, then use sandwich baggies for the time being.

Also, for the "convenience" related crowd that has the arguement "well I pack everything in little cutesy 1 lb. packages", is your TIME worth anything? I'm sure if you counted the costs of 50 of the little cutesy sandwich bags (yellow and blue make green!) you'd be able to figure out that you could have bought 1 maybe 2 mylars with that money.

Guys, here's a news flash- when you open the mylar bag, your food is not going to blow away into the wind, suddenly go bad or lose it's shelf life, it just doesn't happen that way. With WHOLE FOODS, i.e, unprocessed grains, legumes, etc. you would simply take the lid off the bucket, cut a small snip in the top of the mylar (since there so ungodly expensive you'll want to use them again right? And you can use them again) and scoop out what you need. Then you roll the mylar back down on itself and put the lid back on. WHOLE FOODS WILL LAST FOR YEARS STILL THIS WAY INSIDE YOUR HOUSE.

Again, this is all based on experience with storing food over 2 decades. Hope it helps.
Lowdown3

Thought I'd bump this, what with all the mylar and bucket questions posted in the last couple of days.

That is awesome info.

Originally Posted By Country_Boy: The ziplock bags won't keep out O2 (and to a less degree water.) Additional adsorbers would help, packing them in a single mylar bag lining the 5 gallon bucket would fix the problem. If we are talking wheat or sugar, I'm not sure you need to do anything. OTOH, rice, sugar, corn, wheat, and beans you eat frequentally probally don't need to be packed in anything smaller than a 5 gallon bucket. I don't see the $2-3 dollars for a large mylar bag detering anyone. I nitrogen flush everything anyway. Once you have the gear, it doesn't take more then 45 seconds. Lots quicker than dry ice. I can post pictures if anyone wants. I get about 40 lbs of rice to a 5 gallon bucket leaving enough space for the top of the bad and the lid. I probally get an extra 10% in by lifting the bucket 1" and dropping it about a dozen times. Besides getting more rice in, you are reducing airspace. Like someone else said, I use old buckets and new lids. have bought a couple of new buckets because I ran out and wanted to pack the stuff now.

Could you please post that info about nitrogen flushing.

Originally Posted By HighLighter: Mods, If this thread doesn't get tacked there is no justice in the world!

+1

jim

Nice write up. Thanks.

I am amazed at how much easier that is than I had imagined it.

Don't know exactly what I was imagining, but it was difficult and expensive. This, clearly, is not.

Thanks a ton. This is what I come to the SF for.