12 prepper pantry mistakes long term food storage stockpile covid19
coronavirus pandemic second wave stock up now hi it's AlaskaGranny Alaska Prepper having long
term food storage is very important we need to stockpile food so that we have the things food we
need to provide food and meals for our family no matter what the future holds we know there have
been food shortages and supply chain problems in the last few months due to the coronavirus
covid 19 pandemic but then we've also had natural disasters fires floods hurricanes that have made
foods hard to come by food shortages we've also had job losses and economic downturns shutdowns
pandemic stay at home orders that have made it difficult for people to have enough to feed their
families these are all good reasons to have extra food on hand and to build a long-term food storage
and a prepper pantry stockpile I have a list of 12 prepper pantry mistakes that people make
when they're putting together their long-term food storage the number one food storage mistake that
people forget is having enough water you need to store at least one gallon per person per day
for many days you need water for drinking you also need water for cooking for hygiene and
for dishwashing so it's very important that you add water to your long-term food storage
the next mistake people make prepping long term food storage is buying foods you don't like
why would you buy foods you don't like does that even sound like a good idea but people
do it they maybe read a list that someone else has said these are wonderful foods to stockpile
and they go get that list of food or they say I need canned meat and they go buy everything
from roast beef chicken spam to Vienna sausages if some of those are foods that you wouldn't
eat don't get them if you don't like them you've wasted your money and your prepper pantry space
if you see a food you're not familiar with but you think you might like it
buy one take it home and try it if you like it you can go back and get more of that food it
doesn't make sense to stock up your pantry with food you've never tried that you may not like
the next prepper pantry mistake long term food storage is buying foods you don't know how to cook
if you're not familiar with foods like quinoa split peas lentils or how to grind whole kernels
of grain to make bread then that's not foods you should be stockpiling if it's a food you want to
learn to cook get a small amount practice cooking with it learn how to use it before you buy a huge
amount the next prepper pantry mistake long term food storage is failing to have variety in your
long-term food storage if you just have rice and you just have beans
those are great foods to have on hand but they don't have any variety in them you
need some spices you need some different types of beans you need some additional
food so that you don't get food fatigue nobody wants to eat the same exact meal day after day
after day there are a lot of different ways to add variety to your food storage by choosing
different foods different kind of spices and learning how to mix them up and cook them into a
variety of meals the next prepper pantry mistake long term food storage is not having foods for
short-term food storage and long-term food storage it's great to have rice and beans in case there's
a long drawn out emergency but most emergencies are for several days at a time a power outage
we're at the end of the month and we ran out of money to go to the grocery store someone in your
family gets sick or there's a winter storm and you can't get out that's when you need to have some
short-term foods foods that are in your pantry that you can open and eat heat up do a little
cooking and you have meals for your family but if you run out of all of those foods or things turn
very bad in the world that's when you go to your long-term food storage the foods that are designed
to last for 30 years rice beans oatmeal dehydrated foods that are sealed up to last for 30 years
that's when you would get those foods out when you're running out of the other foods
you need to have a balance between short term long term because on a day to day basis we don't
want to go open a bucket of rice and a bucket of beans we want to go to our pantry and open up a
few packaged and canned foods to make a meal the next prepper pantry mistake that people make is
overestimating the lifespan of long term food storage packaged foods I've read that people say
canned foods last forever and that's just not true I've been storing and stockpiling food for decades
and I can guarantee you there are cans of foods that will not last for example fruits and tomatoes
but especially fruits the canned fruits just don't last the acidity levels in some foods just prevent
them from lasting forever it's just not possible I've had many cans of fruits especially things
like pineapple or mixed like tropical fruits that have pineapple in them peaches apricots they have
just leaked and exploded bulged and were no longer good you have to rotate foods it they
have a sell by best buy use by date which doesn't mean that they expire by then but it can mean that
many foods can last long past that date but I've also opened up green beans long past that date
and they were blue and didn't taste right at all but I've opened up lots of foods that were okay
it's best to rotate those foods within that guideline but don't just throw away food because
it's past the date you can still take an outdated food check over the can see if it looks okay open
it up does it spurt does it smell does it look okay is it texture all right and a lot of times it
is still good and safe to eat there's a tip long term food storage with oil it will spoil foods
that have oils just are not going to last like other foods brown rice is going to spoil peanut
butter even if it's sealed up tight as can be I've opened out dated peanut butter and it was rancid
don't rely on foods lasting forever and people who tell you they will last forever
probably haven't really stored them forever and tried it and I actually have and I can guarantee
you that lots of foods will last but don't count on it I would not want to face an uncertain future
and the only thing I had left were a few cans and packages of rotten food you don't want to take
that chance this is food that you really need to eat you need to feed your family you want it to be
safety nutritious to eat and top quality so that's why we rotate the foods we have another packaged
food that I keep hearing people say lasts forever are MRE s which is absolutely not the truth
if you look at the marketing guidelines they tell you MREs meals ready to eat were designed to last
three to five years seven at the most and that's if they are stored in pristine perfect conditions
people say I've got boxes of MREs in my garage they're 35 years old well I've opened up 20 year
old MREs and trust me they were not fit to eat and you should not be counting on food to last
long past an expiration date that is just foolish one of the ways that foods become
out of date and expired and no longer good to eat is because we make this prepper pantry mistake we
don't rotate long term food storage foods when we come in from the grocery store we just add it to
the front of the shelf we keep pushing things back but that's not the proper way to put food away
you want to rotate your food just like they do in the grocery store you want to go to the back of
the shelf push the food to the front and then add your new food behind it so that you're constantly
rotating the food you want to have the first in first out so that way your foods
get rotated and it's true I've made the mistake of things get pushed to the back
or people forget they want to eat that kind of fruit and then foods get out of date
but that's when you can go and open them and check them out and see if they're still safe to eat
but if you're trying to rotate your foods every time you put new food away you're
going to have far less of the problem of finding outdated expired and no longer safe to eat food
the next prepper pantry mistake long term food storage is not storing foods properly when you
bring home foods like grains you need to put them into the freezer for a few days because grains
naturally have little weevils things that are living in the grain if you put it in the freezer
for a few days then get it out and let it thaw out for a few days and sometimes there can still be
little eggs that will hatch that won't be killed by the freezing but then they begin to hatch so
you can put it back in the freezer and thaw it out again so the very best optimum way to prepare your
grains for long term is to freeze thaw freeze and thaw you should definitely freeze and thaw
at least one time and you want to do it before you put it into your long-term food storage containers
and packaging because you don't want any kind of condensation to get in and damage your food
then you can take your food and either store it in a clean canning jar you can store it in
a mylar bag you can seal it in a bucket there are lots of different ways that you can seal up
your food so that it lasts longer there's not just one right way there's many ways to do it
so don't get bogged down on if you have mylar bags if you have oxygen absorbers the point is that you
get as much food as you can and store it the best way that you can and if you then get more canning
jars or more buckets or more mylar bags or oxygen absorbers you can always go back and package the
food in a better way later but it's so important right now that you get the food and you store it
the best that you can try not to leave things in their original packaging because you're allowing
foods to get stale they're taking up more room and you're also allowing critters to get into your
food especially into your dry food and then you get pantry bugs and infestations that can actually
ruin all of your food and you don't want to waste the food that you spent your hard-earned money for
the next prepper pantry mistake long term food storage is not diversifying
where you stockpile your food yes it's great to have a nice huge prepper pantry
have you seen them in on youtube people have these huge rooms that are just full of food
I don't have anything like that and most of us I don't think do have those things but we do have
maybe a pantry or cabinet in our kitchen but then you also want to store some things food somewhere
else in your house simply because if you store everything in the basement and you have a flood
all your food might get destroyed if you store things everything in your kitchen and then you
have a fire all of it might be destroyed having varied locations helps you also to have a way to
store more food you still want to try to store food in a cool dark dry environment so putting
food away in your attic is not a good idea it's too hot storing food in your garage or your shed
probably isn't a good idea either simply because it gets very hot in the summer it gets very cool
and if you leave it down on the floor in your garage it could be
damaged by water running in off of your car or the snow melting into it so we want to find various
places maybe a hall closet you can add some things add some big cans of food to the make a bottom row
in your closet add a row of food under your bed look for different ways to have your food so that
you can have more and then you also have it in various different areas but then don't forget
where the places are that's one of my problems is that I spread it out and then I maybe don't get
back there or don't remember to rotate that food and that's how I've lost some of my food storage
that leads us to the next prepper pantry mistake is not keeping an inventory not keeping track
try to keep a running record of what you have and where you have it then as you use
foods write it on a list and replace them you know that you're eating pasta and sauce
then you write it on your list and when you go to the store you replace it or if you use one
then next time you go to store you buy two then you're building your stockpile a little at a time
the next prepper pantry mistake is underestimate how long your food storage will actually last
most people need between 2000 and 2400 calories per day so if you have a package of food that says
six servings is that going to be enough for two people for the whole day of serving for breakfast
lunch and dinner well if you look in the serving sizes 100 calories it's absolutely not going to
be enough that's when you need to start adding up the calories in your food and figuring out what
would I eat for breakfast what would I have for lunch what would I have for dinner and figure also
include some snacks then add up the calories in the food that you have and you'll realize
then how long your food will actually last if you're keeping your family full if you have 30
pounds of rice 30 pounds of beans seems like an incredible amount of food but if you actually look
at the total calorie count in it you may find that that will only last one person one month
and that's if you only eat that most of us that's not what we want to eat and that's why we add in
other foods so that we have a variety and we don't go crazy just eating rice and beans no one is
suggesting that anyone live on rice and beans but if you had to you could but it's not our choice
that's why we want to have a nice pantry full of a variety of foods and spices and the last prepper
pantry mistake long term food storage is relying on the internet or your phone or something for
the recipes that you have if you know that you want to cook meals out of your pantry
write them down on a card I have a whole variety of meals that I make out of my pantry I call them
pantry clean out recipes and I write those down on a card then I can go in the pantry
pull out the card pull out those ingredients and make that meal I keep those cards clipped together
hanging on a little hook in the pantry then I have the recipe and the directions with the food
so that I know what to do with it rather than just standing there staring into your food and
trying to decide what do I do now it seems like there's all this food in here but I don't really
know what to do with it and how to make a meal and then you don't have to stand there wondering
feeling like you're lost overwhelmed or just hungry and don't know what to do next
grab your cards shuffle through it and then take the foods out and quickly make your meal make up
a menu plan for long term food storage choose five of the meals on your cards that also helps
you plan your shopping if you pick five of those meals that you would want to have the food on hand
write down the ingredients to those five meals and then you make sure that you buy them when
you go to the store then if you wanted to make it twice so that you have enough for two weeks
buy two of each of those things if you want to make those foods for four weeks then make sure
you have four sets of that food so that helps you know how much food you have and know how to use
the foods you have and then it gives you a plan of how to use the food when to use it and how to
rotate your foods long term food storage doesn't have to be complicated sometimes it just seems so
big and overwhelming we don't know where to start and the way to start long term food storage is get
a few easy to open and eat foods that you can have in your pantry already prepared foods that
you can open and eat heat them up and use them or just add water and a little bit of cooking then
after you have several weeks worth of easy meals that you can make out of your pantry then you want
to really bulk up on your long-term food storage and that's when you want to have big supplies of
long-lasting foods like rice beans and dehydrated foods that are sealed to last for 30 years but
before you start buying up buckets of food that are lasting forever ask yourself what if I have an
emergency next week and I have to eat the food out of my pantry do I want to start opening buckets of
rice and beans no you want to go to your pantry and have easy meals that you can pull out and eat
and that's how you get a balance between long term short term you have an idea of what you're
going to cook how long it can last and before you know it you have all the things you need and you
have the satisfaction and the peace of mind that you provided things to the best of your ability
and then no matter what happens you're going to make the best of any situation if you liked
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