Get Important Tips About Different Types of Food Storage

I want to briefly outline for you the different types of food storage and make you aware of their pros and cons.The term "food storage" is used rather loosely in the emergency preparedness industry.Depending on who is sharing the information it can mean anything from a pail of beans to the canned food in your pantry

Food in your pantry
This is the starting point for your food storage. Depending on your family size, having enough food to last you at least two weeks in your pantry is one of the most cost effective ways to have food stored. I came from a large family, so we had a large room where we stored many weeks worth of food. It worked great for the family because my mom rarely had to run to the grocery store in a hurry. She would use our storage room as her grocery store and then restock that when she went shopping. I strongly recommend having a well stocked pantry with food that you are eating and will eat.

Here are a couple things to keep in mind:
* Make sure you buy food that you eat - Many times I see people buy a large quantity of canned foods in a case lot sale, its a great idea but do you really think you will enjoy eating 25 cans of baked bean & corn. Get food that you eat all the time & that it just wont sit in your pantry for decoration.
*Shelf Life- The best rule of thumb is that your canned food will last at least two years but I do know a lot of canned foods can last up to five years. If the canned food is past the expiration date, you should carefully inspect the food (the sniff test) and then make your best determination whether it is still safe to eat also for your foods that are high in acid content such as tomatoes and fruits will be closer to the 2 year range.


Once your pantry is stocked and you feel comfortable there, you need to consider more long term food storage products. These fall into three main categories:
1. Dry bulk food items
2. Dehydrated foods
3. Freeze-dried foods

Dry bulk food items
The items in this category include wheat, beans, rice, rolled oats, sugar and other staples. They are typically bulk packed in either cans or buckets. These items can be good to have around, but here are a few things to keep in mind:
* Preparation- With cooking the dry bulk items you will need to take 3 things into consideration.You will need wheat grinders, lots of fuel (to cook these items into something edible)and additional ingredients to make the food usable. It is difficult to turn these dry bulk food items items into something edible. If you are going to store food in this way, then you have to go all the way.Just the fuel alone will be difficult to store and in the quantities you will need. So just remember, you have to go all in with this approach or you won't be able to use it when you need it.

* Shelf Life - With storing grains if stored properly you will store for many, many years (depending on the conditions you store the food at) you can get probably man decades out of the product.

* Taste and Nutrition - these dry bulk storage foods typically will give you excellent nutrition. As for taste, that depends on what you can make out them. A pot of beans, doesn't taste that great without some other ingredients added to it.

Dehydrated Food
The process of Dehydrating the food requires using high heat & it will remove the moisture from the food wish will allow it to have an extended shelf life. The two things that really affect dehydrated foods are oxygen & moisture and here are a few things to take into consideration with dehydrated food:

* Shelf life - because of how the food is processed, the shelf life for most dehydrated items is 5-10 years. A few items might be a couple years longer and a few items might be a couple years shorter (such as dairy). So all that being said, dehydrated food is on the shorter end of the spectrum for long term shelf life.

* Taste and nutrition - again, because of how the food is processed using high heat, it actually damages the food and removes nutritional value as well as flavor. You will find with dehydrated food that it just won't taste quite as good (sometimes it will taste awful!) and the food will look a little off.

*Preparation - with cooking dehydrated food it does require fuel & a stove and is easy prepare. It does take quite some time and for example, most dehydrated soup mixes ask for you to cook at a simmer from 25-30 minutes and over the time that it takes for you to cook the product it will use up a lot of fuel & in the case you don't have power or if the gas is turned off it can cause problems with having heat for 25-30 minutes.

Freeze-dried food
Freeze-dried food uses a 3 system process and rather than using high heat like dehydrated food, it uses a low heat in a chamber that is slowly vacuuming the moisture from the food. Because of the process that is performed on the food it will retain nearly 100% of nutrients, enzymes and especially the taste. Freeze-dried food hands down is my choice for long term "food storage" out of all 3 categories, here are a few things to consider with freeze-dried food:

*Shelf life - freeze-dried food will offer you the longest shelf life and the minimum of the food is 25 years plus. I have herd that some cases the food has lasted 40 years & was tested & it has lost very little nutritional value & taste.

*Taste & Nutrition - the taste of freeze-dried food is outstanding! It fresh tastes and with the entrees, vegetables and fruits will not have the flavor is not muted or dull and it will retain the same texture, color and look as the same as fresh food. Because the food retains 99% of the vitamins, enzymes & nutrients due to the freeze dried process it brings a rich taste that I eat it for my lunch regularly and I know many other people that have done the same.

* Preparation - again, another exceptional quality of freeze-dried food is how easy the preparation is. This food is designed for just add water simplicity. All you have to do is add hot water, stir and wait about 5 minutes and you have a meal. Because of that, your fuel costs are very low and you don't have to spend valuable time in the preparation.

Article Source: http://www.articlecontentprovider.com/articlesubmit

I want to briefly outline for you the different types of food storage and make you aware of their pros and cons.The term "food storage" is used rather loosely in the emergency preparedness industry.Depending on who is sharing the information it can mean anything from a pail of beans to the canned food in your pantry Food in your pantry This is the starting point for your food storage. Depending on your family size, having enough food to last you at least two weeks in your pantry is one of the ...

http://www.thereadystore.com/mre

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 5 4 out of 5 3 out of 5 2 out of 5 1 out of 5