prepper food pantry problems how to store food so it will last which foods last longest how to tell if canned food is safe to eat
hi it's AlaskaGranny Alaska Prepper properly stored food should last for years but storage
conditions are rarely ideal so you want to make sure that you're always
inspecting your food storage prepper long term food storage is something that comes in steps
we need to gather food inspect it rotate it and resupply the food there are some definite
prepper pantry long term food storage problems that I've encountered and I thought if I share my
problems with you perhaps you can make sure that you don't encounter the same
problems too the first problem I have with food storage is there's so
much food that I end up with foods becoming expired a lot of foods it
doesn't matter if they become expired they're still good to eat for a while but foods
that are way expired can become rotten and no good they're a waste of
your food storage dollars and they're taking up valuable pantry storage space where you could
be storing emergency food and supplies things that are useful I have had peanut butter that actually was
rancid it got pushed in the back it was several years old I opened it up it
looked fine but it smelled disgusting so it was wasted luckily it was only one
small jar I've also had some macaroni and cheese that got put back in an out
of the way cabinet and the macaroni is always going to be okay but several
years expired macaroni and cheese the little cheese packets are rotten I've
stored lots of canned fruits and I have had cans that have exploded one of the
worst canned fruits to store has been pineapple it's exploded several times as have foods fruits like things like canned
peaches you want to look carefully over your food storage
canned goods and make sure none of the cans of food are bulging and I've actually had
the pop tops blow out on some of my cans of pineapple and then it makes a huge mess
in the cabinet the fruits were never very expired they were expired but not
very much and so I was really surprised that they were not as long-lasting as
other canned foods which have been very good lasting way beyond the sell by best by expiration date you need to be extra careful of
your way outdated foods try to buy enough food that you don't have so much
you don't rotate it in the proper amount of time
another problem I've had with my food storage is pantry bugs getting in dry packaged grains flour noodles cereal
cornmeal pantry bugs exist in all kinds of grains so one of the things you can
do is when you bring home packages of flour muffin mixes cereal pasta boxed dinners pancake mix it home stick it in the freezer for a few days and that'll
kill any weevils that are naturally living in the wheat products if you live
in a warm climate one of the things you want to do before you even buy dried food shelf stable food
products is look over the packages in the store because sometimes you can see
that there is something in there already because it's been in the store too long
look on the shelf make sure there is no evidence of any infestation on the shelf
look over the package and always check the sell-by freshness expiration date
before you put anything in your cart and in your pantry water storage is also
important I've had disintegrating small water bottles and if the bottle is
disintegrating it means the chemicals in the plastic container are likely being
contaminated into the water don't buy foods you're not going to use
don't buy so much that you can't rotate it and especially be careful of mixed
foods things like salad dressings mayonnaises
creamy sauces they just don't last very long in food storage pantries stockpiles store as close to single
ingredients foods long term as you can vinegar honey sugar oil rather than combinations
of those vinegar is going to last practically forever oil may be two years
so if you buy a salad dressing it's not going to last as long as single
ingredient food items when it comes to storing jars of food whether it's home canned or from
the store you want to make sure that you keep that jars of food in a dark place if the
contents are exposed to light they tend to discolor check to make sure the seals on the jars of food
are still tight there's no leakage no foam no bubbles inside
you're canned and jarred goods food wipe your shelves down regularly to make sure that
your food is clean and safe the most important thing to remember with food
storage is to gather it inspect it rotate it and replace it gather enough food so
that you know your family will always have enough no matter what comes your way
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