Thread: Storing dry foods - mylar bags or plastic containers?

I'm building up our food stocks - and was curious as to how folks are storing their dry foods. I've got 40lbs of rice right now that I want to find better long term storage means for - right now they're just in the original plastic bags.

I put the bulk bagged food in a plastic trash bag and put it in a deep freeze for a few weeks to kill the insects then it can be thawed out, still in the bag to prevent condensation reaching the food. It then goes into a new bag and straight into a bucket. Mylar is good but not absolutely necessary. Some PPL add dry ice or bay leaves. I do not, but I do use screw on Gamma Lids and have done so for decades. keep the lids tight as the seal gasket will contract in cold weather and allow moisture inside.

I am doing mylar bags inside plastic buckets(mine are the square 4.5gal(or what ever they are). Please learn from me on this though. I thought i was a genius and bought mylar with "ziplocks" on the top instead of spending a bunch of money on a vaccum sealer. Get the mylar bags that you need to seal with a "flat iron" or strip sealer.

AIP is dead on about putting the rice in the freezer to kills bugs.

My next foray will be to make/retrofit a vaccum/shop vac to my impulse sealer and seal my food permanently. Taking my mylar bag placing it in the container, placing the rice in it as flattly as possible, so it resembles a biscuit in the bucket, adding some O2 absorbers and doing this for 2-4 bags as my philosphy is to rotate and use my food. I've done too much storing and forgetting things, this is a waste in my opinion. I am in my buckets ALL the time. So my beans and rice and wheat is 2-3yrs. old at the oldest.

This is my opinion, it is worth what you paid for it.

I cut and reseal the bucket sized mylar bags into 4 smaller ones. Allows me to put 5 of those into a 5gal bucket, and rotation is easier since I'm not opening 50# of goods at a time. More work, yes, but more portable if I want to grab one for camping.

Edit; The down side is losing storage space per bucket due to the shape and fit of the bags.

If you use mylar or other bags make sure you put them into something rodent proof. A 50 cal ammo can works well.

Hand warmer packets work well for oxygen absorbers, since they do the same thing for less.