When Disaster Strikes...Are YOU Ready?

I want to share my food storage experience using Mylar bags. I no expert, having just dived into it in the last year or two, but I think what I learned could be useful to those who wants to consider using this method of food storage.

Usually, mylar bags are used with 5 gallon plastic buckets to storage large quantities. I like using smaller 1-gallon/5 pound mylar bags. One advantage of smaller mylar bags is it is easier to recycle your food, without cracking open an entire 5-gallon bucket. Most food stored in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and moisture packets are good for up to 8-10 years. Flour for 5 years. I also add bay leaves to my flour and grains to keep bugs out.

Mylar is an excellent air & moisture barrier. They say you can jump on a filled mylar bag and it won’t pop. But they need protection against punctures and gnawing vermin critters—hence they need to be stored in a protective container. I store mine in rubbermaid containers that seal well.

 The key is to keep food cool, dry, dark, and rodent free. They say that for every 10 degrees cooler, your food life doubles. For every 10 degrees warmer, it halves it storage life.

Ok, here are the specs on the mylar bags for food storage. They must be a minimum of 4.5 mm to meet food grade standards. There are many sites online that sell them. We offer them on the site .

Here’s what you need to start:
 
1. Minimum 4.5mm thick food grade mylar bags. I use the 7 mm.

2. 500cc Oxygen absorbers packets for one gallon, 11” x 13” or similar sized mylar bags. These come in a sealed bag with all the oxygen sucked out. If the bag is not flat, but instead puffy with air, your oxy packets have been compromised. You will need a glass jar with a metal (not plastic) lid to store them after you open the bag. Plastic bags are no good for long term storage of oxy packets—they have a poor air barrier—Hence, that’s why mylar bags are so great --You could seal them in a mylar bag. The oxy packets have about a 20-minute exposure period when taken out. You should only take out an oxy packet as you are ready to put one in the bag, and close the lid to preserve the others. Oxy bags get very warm after being exposed to air.

3. 5 gram sized moisture packets. Note: I’ve talked to the people at our local LDS cannery, and they said that they and others have had no problems with food stored without moisture packets. Everything else I’ve read online suggest you should put them in. Your call, but it won’t hurt to use them. I do. I’ve read that there are potential problems with legumes becoming too dry, and not able to soak water to soften up for cooking. On the other hand, I’ve read that legumes can also mold because they do contain moisture. 10% moisture content in the bag is what to aim for. How to get that, I’m still learning. So I’m waiting to learn more before I store legumes.

4. Mylar sealer. I used the industrial strength one that our local church has. It has a foot pedal, and makes it really easy to seal a bag. I understand that you can also use a hot iron set on wool or cotton (Not your wife’s!) with a board and towel to seal the bags.While I have successfully sealed food myself, a helper makes things go so much smoother!

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Put one 5-gram moisture absorber in the bottom of the mylar bag.
Along with 2-3 Bay leaves.

2. Pour flour, rice, grain, etc. in bag. Flour can be a pain because it can “poof” everywhere. When it does, I use a damp paper towel to clean up the bags, and then a dry towel to remove any moisture. At this point, I like to firmly bang the mylar bag against the table, to help settle the contents and reduce airspace between the food elements.

3. Now place one 500cc oxy packet on top of food.

4. Hold and pull tight either end of the open bag, place in the sealer, and hit the foot pedal. On the sealer, it takes about 2-3 seconds to seal. The settings for the Church sealer should be Sealing: 3, Congealing: 6, Recycle: 2. If you don’t get a good seal with that, try Sealing: 5, and set others to 4. You don’t have to, but just because I’m paranoid, I like to add a second seal to each mylar bag.

And that’s it! It doesn’t take very long at all to crank out a bunch of bags. You can cut bags in half or smaller to store smaller portions. The bagged food can be a bit awkward to store in containers like buckets and trash cans—The sealed mylar bags are very stiff and rigid. Be sure to store fragile food like pasta on top of the heavier, bulkier foods.

Use a permanent marker to write the packing date and description on the bagged food. I like to include the brand name of the food, in case I have any problems with it, or is recalled by the FDA. I’m thinking of adding a label to remind other members of my family to be sure to watch for the oxy and moisture packets when they open the bags—The packets themselves are fairly harmless, but no one wants cook a packet in their meal.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Put one 5-gram moisture absorber in the bottom of the mylar bag.

2. Pour flour, rice, grain, etc. in bag. Flour can be a pain because it can “poof” everywhere. When it does, I use a damp paper towel to clean up the bags, and then a dry towel to remove any moisture. At this point, I like to firmly bang the mylar bag against the table, to help settle the contents and reduce airspace between the food elements.

3. Now place one 500cc oxy packet on top of food. Don’t get lazy and put the oxy AND moisture packets together on top—The moisture packet adjacent to the oxy packet can greatly reduce it’s potency. I learned this the hard way, and had to go back to open bags and throw in a new oxy packet to make sure the original one was not compromised.

4. Hold and pull tight either end of the open bag, place in the sealer, and hit the foot pedal. On the sealer, it takes about 2-3 seconds to seal. The settings for the Church sealer should be Sealing: 3, Congealing: 6, Recycle: 2. If you don’t get a good seal with that, try Sealing: 5, and set others to 4. You don’t have to, but just because I’m paranoid, I like to add a second seal to each mylar bag.

And that’s it! It doesn’t take very long at all to crank out a bunch of bags. You can cut bags in half or smaller to store smaller portions. The bagged food can be a bit awkward to store in containers like buckets and trash cans—The sealed mylar bags are very stiff and rigid. Be sure to store fragile food like pasta on top of the heavier, bulkier foods.

Use a permanent marker to write the packing date and description on the bagged food. I like to include the brand name of the food, in case I have any problems with it, or is recalled by the FDA. I’m thinking of adding a label to remind other members of my family to be sure to watch for the oxy and moisture packets when they open the bags—The packets themselves are fairly harmless, but no one wants cook a packet in their meal.

I have sealed beans, noodles, macaroni and spaghetti using my vacuum packer and then I place these vaccum sealed products inside the mylar bags and seal again.

 If you are sealing the large mylar bags that have been placed in a 5 agallon bucket you can use an iron set to the "wool" setting. Place a board across the top of the bucket, lay the bag across the board and iron shut.

If you're really worried about bugs, put some Diatomaceous Earth in with the food. It kills anything that might hatch after packing. (But the Oxygen absorbers should make it impossible for them to live anyway.) Food Grade  Diatomaceous Earth is edible for humans, in fact, it is good for you, and it will keep bugs from hatching.