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Last Updated on August 22, 2024 by Paul Clayton
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Best Long-Term Food Containers For Preppers
Ensuring the longevity and freshness of stored food is a significant concern for preppers. The best long-term food containers for preppers are designed to address this concern specifically.
- Glass Jars: Durable, reusable, keep food fresh longer.
- Stainless Steel Containers: Rust-resistant, ideal for various foods.
- #10 Cans: Reliable, preserve non-perishables for years.
- Food-grade Plastic Buckets: Sealed, stackable, perfect for large quantities.
- PETE Plastic Containers: FDA-approved, durable, moisture and oxygen-resistant.
It’s no secret that sifting through the endless variety of food containers, techniques, and storage methods can be daunting. Those beginning a prepper journey (and even long-time survivalists) could use a helping hand to find the best of the best.
Read to learn which food storage containers and treatment methods are ideal for a perfect prepper pantry.
The Importance of Dry Foods in Your Prepper Pantry
Selecting the right food products is the first step to success when creating a pantry to get you through the long haul. Foods with higher moisture levels tend to have a shorter shelf life than dry foods.
Good candidates for long-term food storage will have a moisture content of ten percent or less and be low in oil content.
Foods that are high in oils can end up going rancid in storage. For this reason, white rice will be good for up to 30 years, while its brown counterpart won’t last more than a year.
When getting started, you can select from a wide range of dry foods: wheat, corn, white rice, spelled, split peas, pasta, rolled oats, pinto, black, and kidney beans.
This video has been included to clarify the topic. Credit goes to City Prepping
Dehydrated fruits and vegetables will also work, but they must be very low moisture and dry enough to snap. Some solid choices are dehydrated potatoes, celery, carrots, and onions.
Long-Term Storage for Dry Foods
White rice can last 30 years, but that doesn’t mean it will without your help. Knowing the ideal storage containers will help keep that stockpile fresh. Let’s explore some of the best methods for preserving survival foods.
#10 Cans
Cans are the perfect option for long-term storage of dry, shelf-stable, low-oil foods. Just ensure they’re under that ten percent moisture mark! The food inside will not react with the metal due to a food-grade enamel coating that lines the inside of the can.
A number ten can is about 6 ¼ inches tall in diameter and can hold three quarts of liquid. The dry weight capacity of the food storage will vary by specific contents. To put this in perspective, let’s look at the sizes of some cans we’re familiar with.
A can of wheat weighs 5.5 pounds, pinto beans 5.2, and dry macaroni 3 pounds. This airtight container can hold most dried foods.
These containers for long-term food storage have plenty of advantages for preppers. #10 cans provide a complete moisture and oxygen barrier to protect the contents.
Most survivalists would say that they’re the best choice for optimal long-term dry food preservation.
Although they’ll make your prepper pantry easier to maintain, there are still a few things to look out for with #10 cans. Most importantly, cans may rust in humid environments.
Once they do, they’re no longer guaranteed safe to eat. Additionally, reusing cans for food storage can be difficult; try repurposing them for other things instead.
Here at Crow Survival, we recommend protecting cans against moisture to prevent rust. To do this, avoid storing them in direct contact with concrete floors or walls. All foods in #10 cans, except sugar, should be packed with an oxygen absorber.
Taking out the oxygen will prevent insect infestation and preserve food quality.
Foil Pouches and Pouch Bags
If you’re out of cans, foil pouches, and Mylar bags are the next best things for food storage. These pouches are made from several layers of laminated food-grade plastic and aluminum.
However, you won’t have to worry about ingredients reacting to the aluminum because a thick plastic lining separates it.
Ensure the pouches in your prepper pantry are high-quality and specifically intended to store food products.
30pcs Mylar Bags for Food Storage with Oxygen Absorbers – Extra Thick 14.8 Mil – 1 Gallon Ziplock Resealable
Whether making a small stockpile or attempting to store food for 25 years, one-gallon bags are available.
These bags are available in various sizes—small enough to seal a pack of garden seeds or large enough to line a 5-gallon bucket. Oxygen absorbers should also be included with the bags you purchase.
The main advantage of food storage in Mylar bags is that they protect from moisture and insects. Seal the bag with a clothes or hair iron upon absorbing that air.
Just like #10 cans, these prepper bags aren’t always convenient. Remember that pouches aren’t rodent-proof. Plus, food storage in Mylar bags is more fragile than cans or plastic buckets and must be handled carefully.
Anticipate that your pouch-stored foods will have a shorter shelf life than those in cans.
One of the best storage tips for food storage bags is to keep them inside a plastic tote, bucket, or metal garbage can to increase protection against rodents.
Don’t let these pouches contact concrete floors or walls. Lastly, preppers can place the bags inside boxes for easier storage and stacking.
PETE Plastic Bottles
Anyone familiar with food storage for preppers may know that plastic can be a bit tricky. Dry foods should only be stored in clean PETE (polyethylene terephthalate). Other plastic bottles likely won’t provide an adequate moisture or oxygen barrier.
PETE bottles will have “PETE” or “PET” under the recyclable symbol on the bottom of the bottle. This may come as a surprise, but fruit juice and soda pop bottles are good options for longer-term storage. Never use ones that previously contained non-food items.
Before using them, be sure the bottles are thoroughly cleaned. If the lid has an inset, remove it and clean it. Most preppers recommend sanitizing bottles with weak chlorine bleach so nothing can grow.
Then, allow them to air dry for several days, ensuring they’re fully dry before use. So, what makes PETE bottles so great? They’re an optimal choice for storing grains and legumes.
Plus, they can be sued for water storage. Whatever you store inside, these bottles are small and easy to manage. However, you might run into some hiccups as well.
Remember that oxygen is slowly transmitted through the plastic over time, so PETE bottles will not maintain quality for as long as #10 cans do. If PETE bottles aren’t protected from light, the food inside could also degrade.
Light and oxygen aren’t the only obstacles when using PETE bottles. Rodents can sometimes chew through the thin plastic.
Additionally, funneling the grain into the bottle’s neck and shaking it down to eliminate dead air space requires some of your best prepper patience and effort.
One oxygen absorber packet per gallon of food containing ten percent moisture or less is recommended.
Plastic Buckets
PETE bottles can be great, but what if your stockpile requires more space to store food long-term? Food-grade plastic buckets with gasket seals are strong candidates for grain storage.
Just be sure never to use a plastic bucket that contains non-food items or is not made of food-grade plastic.
Storing individually packaged items like bags of pasta, salt, baking powder, powdered sugar, and various other items in plastic buckets can optimize space and preserve ingredients for longer.
Buckets are great because they provide an extra layer of protection from critters, prevent packaging from absorbing moisture in the storage room, and help to maintain freshness.
This food-for-storage emergency option is also extremely inexpensive for storing large amounts of dry products long-term. The buckets and some lids can be reused many times.
Plastic buckets are available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. While they restrict some of the air, plastic buckets are not an oxygen barrier. Oxygen is transmitted slowly through the polyethylene walls of the container over time.
Some plastic leaching into the food may also occur, but this isn’t harmful. You may consider lining the bucket with a Mylar bag if this concerns you. Repurposed buckets may have some lingering odors.
While these scents aren’t harmful, food can absorb the odor. Wheat that smells more like a jar of pickles doesn’t sit right with us. Be very careful about what you store in repurposed buckets.
When storing your buckets, keep them at least one-half inch off the floor on pallets or boards. This will promote good air circulation and keep them off the concrete.
Additionally, do not stack more than three buckets high to prevent tipping and breaking the lids on lower buckets.
Once you’ve stacked them, ensure they’re protected from direct and indirect light. Keep periodically checking your buckets for integrity.
Glass Jars
Plastic can be very convenient, but every good prepper has various options for long-term food storage. Glass jars are a fantastic reusable option for storing long- and short-term dry goods. This storage method is also incredible for daily food storage.
Consider purchasing specialty salts and sugars, spices, seeds, and other dry goods in bulk and storing them in glass jars. Make sure to keep all dried fruits, veggies, and herbs in there too.
You may want to use fancy, expensive canning jars, but repurposed PB or spaghetti sauce jars also work.
Glass jars are the optimal food storage containers for the pantry because they’re available in various sizes and shapes, allowing survivalists more flexibility when storing.
Not to mention, reusing them for many years is no issue. Since they’re non-permeable, air and water can’t seep through. Unlike plastic, glass will not harbor bacteria in the glass or leach onto the food product.
Like all food storage methods, glass jars have quirks and kinks. Glass is fragile, making it challenging to keep safe in survival situations. Light can also deteriorate food within glass bottles.
Colored food storage glass containers can help reduce or eliminate this issue, but clear ones are much more widely available. Most food preppers recommend storing glass jars in a protected environment away from light.
Your bottles would love to sit on some shelves in a dark storage room.
To reduce light intake, re-purpose some old socks by cutting them into sleeves for more protection and shade. If you’ve got empty glass jars around the house, you might as well fill them with water.
They take up the same amount of full or empty space, so why not have some extra H2O on hand?
PS. Don’t forget to pick up some food storage plastic container lids to top them.
This video has been included to clarify the topic. Credit goes to Tactical Rifleman
Keeping Dry, Stored Foods Fresh
Even with the best food storage containers available, keeping foods fresh for the long term isn’t always easy. Luckily, Crow Survival has your back. Let’s go over some tips and tricks for preserving your prepper pantry.
One of the biggest issues with food storage for preppers is critters. Weevils, beetles, moths, and other pests tend to infest, contaminate, destroy, and consume food. Insects come in various life stages and require special handling to destroy each stage.
Storing food in an oxygen-free container will eliminate insects in all stages. How can preppers eliminate pests, in addition to storing them properly?
Dry Ice
Dry ice treatment is preferred for dry food products packaged for long-term storage in plastic buckets. If you’re unsure how it works, dry ice is a form of carbon dioxide (CO2) available in most grocery stores.
Those storing grains and legumes in plastic buckets should pick some up for survival.
Unfortunately, it will control most adult and larval stage insects, not eggs or pupae. Multiple applications will be necessary if there is an infestation. Purchasing quality grain from a trusted source is a way to avoid bug problems.
If you need to treat more than once, wait two to three weeks for insects to mature from surviving eggs and pupae. This way, you can banish those critters once and for all! To treat your food, use one ounce of fry ice per gallon of food or two to three ounces in a five-gallon bucket.
Dust off any ice crystals and wrap the dry ice in a paper towel to prevent it from burning the food it comes in contact with. Add three inches of grain to the bucket and set the lid on the top without fully sealing. Leave the bucket askew for thirty minutes to an hour.
Do not seal until after the dry ice has been completely sublimated. Keep an eye on the lid for a few minutes, ensuring the thing doesn’t bulge up. In the case that it does open and release the pressure.
Your food should be safe once that pressure is gone and the lid is no longer bulging.
Oxygen Absorbers
Playing with dry ice seems like a fun experiment, but what else can protect and preserve a survival stockpile? Oxygen absorbers work by physically removing oxygen from the container’s atmosphere, killing adult insects, and taking out larval insects.
They are simply small packets containing iron powder.
Their material allows oxygen and moisture to enter but does not let the iron powder leak out. Any moisture in the food will cause the iron to rust, oxidize it, and absorb oxygen. Oxygen absorbers are more effective at eliminating air than any vacuum packaging.
Air is about 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen. Since the packets absorb only oxygen, all the remaining air is nitrogen. Luckily for us preppers, nitrogen doesn’t allow insects to grow.
This is the preferred treatment method for dry products packaged in containers that provide sufficient moisture and oxygen barriers (think glass jars, foil pouches, and #10 cans).
To use, place the new oxygen absorber into the container and seal it within 20 minutes. A single 300-500cc oxygen absorber will treat a one-gallon container.
All unused packets should be sealed with air and removed for future use. One thing to remember about oxygen absorbers is that they won’t work for plastic buckets.
They depend on the absence of oxygen to kill insects, and plastic buckets are not an actual oxygen barrier.
It’s best to refer back to the dry ice method for plastic buckets.
Freezing Long-Term Foods
Even if you’re not a prepper, freezing ingredients is a hack that can save everyone tons of waste and cash on the grocery bill.
Storing food in the freezer is a solid treatment method for smaller packages that fit in easily. Think of a five-pound bag of flour or cereal.
Freezing your food will kill live pests, but you’ll still need to watch for insect eggs. To kill all insects and hatching eggs, you may need to facilitate multiple freezing and warming cycles.
To start this process, place your food bags in the freezer for two or three days, then gradually warm them for 24 hours.
You’ll be set for the long term with a freezer full of survival foods.
What Protein Has the Longest Shelf Life?
Regarding the question of “What protein has the longest shelf life?” The answer lies in freeze-dried eggs. These are premium protein sources with an exceptionally long shelf life.
Free freeze-drying helps preserve the nutritional content and quality of the eggs, making them a reliable protein source.
The longevity of freeze-dried eggs allows them to remain edible for an extended period, even when fresh eggs are no longer readily available. This makes them an ideal choice for long-term food storage and emergency preparedness.
What Foods Last the Longest without Refrigeration?
When considering what foods last the longest without refrigeration, it’s essential to focus on pantry staples. Foods such as rice, pasta, and dried beans are excellent choices, as they can last for years when stored in a cool, dry place.
Similarly, canned goods, including vegetables, fruits, and meats, remain edible for an extended period due to their preservation process.
Other durable options encompass honey, which never spoils due to its low moisture content, and hard cheeses like Parmesan, which can remain fresh for several weeks.
Thus, knowing what foods last the longest without refrigeration can be beneficial in planning your food storage effectively.
Summary
The best long-term food containers for preppers come in various forms, each designed to cater to specific needs and preferences. Glass jars, for instance, offer durability and reusability, keeping food fresh for extended periods.
Stainless steel containers, conversely, are rust-resistant and, thanks to their sturdy nature, ideal for storing various foods.
The #10 cans provide a reliable and secure storage solution, preserving non-perishables for years. Food-grade plastic buckets are an excellent choice for those who need to store large quantities of food.
These containers are sealed and stackable, making them a space-saving solution without compromising the quality and freshness of the stored food.
Lastly, PETE plastic containers are noteworthy for their FDA-approved status. These containers are not only durable but also resistant to moisture and oxygen.
This makes them perfect for long-term storage as they help prevent food spoilage.
Each option underlines the importance of selecting the best long-term food containers for preppers, ensuring that the stored food remains safe and edible over extended periods.
Now that you know all the best options for long-term food storage, let the stockpiling begin! Whether you’re hoarding plastic bins, glass jars, or cans, your food will stay safe for years.
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