Whether it’s another civil war, a natural disaster, or a man-made catastrophe, you know that threats to you and your family exist. Having access to shelter is just one important consideration. The right survival supplies are also necessary. While you’ll need tools, clothing, blankets, and the like, there’s something that you cannot afford to ignore – food.
You need to build a food storage supply that will see you and your family through until the situation improves or you’re able to find help. Not sure how to store food? Wondering where to find food that lasts 25 years in your emergency shelter? In this guide, we’ll walk you through what you need to know in order to be prepared.
Choosing the Right Food to Store
First, let’s address the question of food types and preservation methods. You
have lots of options, and we’re going to run through them here.
- Canning – You can preserve food on your own by canning it. The hot water bath method can be used to can acidic foods without any special equipment other than mason jars, lids, and bands. For non-acidic foods at risk of botulism, you’ll need a pressure canner, which can be picked up from your local Big Box store for less than $50 in most cases.
However, this is not food that lasts 25 years. In fact, home-canned food generally only lasts two to five years. The National Center for Home Food Preservation actually recommends storing home-canned foods for no more than a single year. Plus, the canning process itself is very time consuming, and then there’s the fact that you need to either grow or buy the food that you can.
While this might be a good solution for those who already have a garden, or those who have plenty of spare time, it’s not the best solution out there.
- Store-Bought Canned Food – Another option is to build your food storage supply with prepacked and canned food that you buy from the store. Canned vegetables and even meats can be bought and stored in an out of the way location for years.
However, canned food isn’t the most nutritionally complete out there, and it can be expensive. It also does not last as long as you might think, and you’ll need to regularly cycle through your stockpile, removing and replacing anything that is close to or has passed its expiration date.
- Dehydrated Foods – You might think that dehydrated foods would have one of the longest shelf lives out there, but it does not have the longest. Part of this is because even though it is dehydrated, it still contains a significant amount of moisture, which limits its lifespan. There’s also the fact that the dehydrating process robs the food of much of its nutrition. So, while you can certainly dehydrate your own foods, it may not be the best option for your food storage needs.
- Freed Dried Foods – If you’re interested in food that lasts 25 years, then freeze dried food should be on your list. It has dramatically less moisture content than even dehydrated food, is easily stored, maintains high levels of nutrients, is low in weight, and can last for decades.
Why Choose Freeze Dried Foods?
We touched on the benefits of freeze dried foods above, but we need to explore them in greater depth for you to truly understand why you should build your food storage supply around them.
Lifespan – When it comes to lifespan, you’ll find that this is the only food that lasts 25 years. In fact, some brands can last dramatically longer than that, ensuring you and your family have access to a stable, safe, healthy food supply. That also means you don’t have to worry about wasting time, money, and effort by throwing out food that’s past is expiration date.
Nutrition – Freeze dried food maintains almost all of its nutritional content. In contrast, dehydrated food loses a lot of nutrients in the dehydrating process. Commercially canned food loses a lot of nutrition in the canning process, and includes a lot of unnecessary sodium. Even home-canned food loses its nutritional value over time.
Size – A lot of freeze dried food can be packed into a small container, giving you more bang for your buck. Home-canned and commercial canned foods are heavy (and glass mason jars are easily broken). They are also bulky, which means that you will need lots of storage space. With freeze dried foods, you can pack a lot more nutrition into a smaller space.
Value – When it comes to value, you certainly get more for your money with freeze dried foods. That’s true even in comparison with home-canned foods when you factor in the supplies you need to buy and the time that you spend growing, preparing the food, and then canning it.
Where to Buy Freeze Dried Foods?
Obviously, freeze dried foods are ideal for your home food storage supply. So, where can you buy them? Actually, there are plenty of options out there. Some of the most readily accessible choices of where to buy freeze dried foods are as follows:
- Amazon – Buy a wide range of brands, food types, and more, and have them delivered right to your door.
- Sam’s Club – If you’re a Sam’s Club member, you can buy freeze dried foods in the store as well as through the website.
- Walmart – Like Sam’s, you can buy freeze dried foods in Walmart stores, as well as through the company’s website.
- Most Sporting Goods Stores – Stores like Dick’s Sporting Goods and others stock freeze dried foods in their camping sections (and sell them online).
- Specialty Retailers – You’ll find a number of specialty retailers dedicated to helping you and your family prepare for disasters and emergencies that sell freeze dried foods online.
Can You Make Your Own Freeze Dried Foods?
Yes, you can actually make your own freeze dried foods at home. You will need to purchase a freeze dryer (Amazon is probably the best place to find one), and you will also need some supplies, such as oxygen absorbers and mylar bags. These will be indispensable in packaging your freeze dried foods, but can also help if you choose to break down larger packages of commercially freeze dried food for storage.
Mylar Bags: What to Know about Them
Whether you are freeze drying your own food, or you’re purchasing it in bulk from a commercial supplier, you will want a way to store it and break it down into more easily managed pieces. Mylar bags are the perfect solution for this. However, to help you avoid overspending or buying the wrong size bags, there are a few things that you’ll want to know.
What Is Mylar?
First, let’s discuss what mylar is. It’s nothing more than plastic made from polyester film. It is durable, relatively strong, transparent, and flexible. The material is actually used to create a wide range of products, from insulation to emergency blankets. What makes these such good bags for food preservation?
Really, it is a combination of their flexibility, strength, and impermeability to air and moisture. When used with oxygen absorbers (or a vacuum sealer), mylar bags keep your food safe and protected against outside threats for years at a time.
Where to Buy Mylar Bags?
The best place to buy mylar bags is Amazon, hands-down. You’ll find the best pricing, and if you’re a Prime subscriber, you’ll get free two-day shipping. There’s also the fact that you will be able to find lots of different sizes so that you can store your food as you see fit without spending a fortune or wasting time at the store.
What to Look for in Mylar Bags?
You might be tempted to think that any mylar bag is as good as another. However, that’s not the case. There are several factors you will want to consider here, including the following:
Thickness – The thicker the mylar, the stronger the bag will be and the better it will protect your food. It will be more puncture resistant, and able to handle additional stress. Generally, mylar bag are available in thicknesses ranging from 3.5 mils to 7 mils (a mil is a thousandth of an inch). The problem here is one of cost. The thicker the mylar, the more expensive the bags will be. The thinner the mylar, the lower the cost (but the less durable). You’ll need to let your budget decide here, really, but it is always best to get the thickets mylar bags you can afford.
Size – You will need more than one size of mylar bags. In reality, you will most likely need three sizes. The ideal situation would be having one size for bulk foods, like dry rice and beans, another for freeze dried foods in smaller formats, and then a third for individual servings. A five-gallon mylar bag would work very well for your bulk foods. A one-gallon bag is the ideal size for smaller portions. Finally, one-quart bags are excellent for individual meals if you want to break things down that way.
Of course, you can use as many different sizes as you like, and you are free to develop your own food storage strategy based on how you want to break down your meals. For instance, you could keep your bulk food in plastic five-gallon buckets lined with mylar bags, but then break down other foods by their size or intended use.
You might have proteins in quart-sized bags, while calorie-dense sweet snacks could be in sandwich sized bags. If you plan to travel with your foods in a backpack, you could buy different sized mylar bags to make layering freeze dried food simple and easy.
Seal Types – There are a couple of different sealing methods used with mylar bags and food preservation. The older method uses a completely open mylar bag and a heat sealer. You put the end of the bag into the sealer, close it, and allow the heating element to heat up. This melts the plastic together, creating a permanent seal.
The other option is to use ziplock mylar bags. You’re no doubt familiar with ziplock technology. It’s been used on everything from sandwich bags to frozen vegetables. It’s a great way to make your bag resealable. These bags actually combine heat sealing with the reusable nature of ziplocks.
Which of the two is right for you? Resealable ziplock mylar bags are always the better choice. Why is that, though?
Heat sealing can be wasteful. Once your bag is sealed and then opened, that’s the end of its use. With resealable ziplock mylar bags, you benefit from the permanence of heat sealing, but the zippered opening ensures that you can reuse the bags again and again, meaning that you can save time and money.
A Note on Containers
While ziplock mylar bags will be excellent for holding your freeze dried foods and keeping them safe from oxygen and moisture, you need to also protect against light. Make sure that you don’t store your bags in the open – plastic, food-grade buckets allow you to seal your food away from light, and also help to prevent the incursion of pests. Rodents in particular can easily chew through mylar and get at the food inside, but a decent bucket will help prevent that from happening.
In Conclusion
Ultimately, building a food storage supply does not have to be costly, time consuming, or frustrating. There are quite a few ways you can go about it, from buying canned food to canning your own vegetables, fruit, and even meat. However, for the utmost in nutritional quality, ease of storage, and shelf life, freeze dried food will be the best choice.
You have many different places to buy freeze dried food, from Amazon to Sam’s Club, and you can even make your own with a freeze dryer. Combine freeze dried food with ziplock mylar bags and you have a powerful solution to your food storage needs.
Sources:
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/how_long_does_home_preserved_food_last
https://theepicenter.com/food-storage.html
https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/products/freeze-dried-food.jsp
https://www.beprepared.com/survival-food/food-storage/freeze-dried-food
https://commonsensehome.com/home-food-preservation/
https://www.skilledsurvival.com/mylar-bags-food-storage/
https://harvestright.com/blog/2016/how-to-package-freeze-dried-food-so-it-keeps-for-25-years/