Dry Packing, Pressure Canning, Water Baths, Jams, Jellies, Pickles, and Dehydrating

	Home | Contact Us Jump to... 72 Hour Kits Chart Your Progress Chemical Emergency Communications Cooking Source Death Dry Packing Earthquakes Employment / Career Extras Extreme Winters Family Escape Plan Financial Fire Fire Starters First Aid Food Storage Gardening Heat Heat Waves Helpful Hints Hurricanes Important Papers Important Phone Numbers Insurance Light Lightning Nuclear Disaster Personal Hygiene Physical Preparedness Prepare by the week Pressure Canning Recipes Review Questions Sanitation Sewing and Clothing Shelf Life of Food Shelter Snakes / Animals / Insects Spiritual Preparedness Sprouts Storage Areas Stress Management Surprise Theft Tools Tornado Utilities Water Wills and Trusts       Dry Packing There are four main ways to preserve food for your food storage: dry packing, pressure canning, water bath and dehydrating. Dry packing is a storage process that has provided us a way to package and protect our dry products for storage by using a can or mylar bag and an oxygen pack. The oxygen pack takes the oxygen out of the can so your food is better preserved. The advantage of dry packing is that your food is protected from light, moisture, rodents and insects. Except when using mylar bags - the food is not protected for rodents. Dry packed food in a #10 can is best used by: wheat - 20 years or more white flour - 5 years white rice - 4 years quick oats - 5 years macaroni - 8 years pinto beans, etc. - 8 years white sugar - 20 years non instant powdered milk - 5 years There are some items that CAN NOT be dry packed for a long time because of their oil content. Such as: brown sugar, cornmeal, brown rice. If you choose to dry pack items like these, they must be used within one year. The oxygen pack must be removed after opening the can. A chemical reaction occurs if the oxygen pack stays in the opened can and becomes moist. This will destroy your food. ********************************************************************************************************************************************* Dehydrated foods will not be extensively covered. If you choose this form of food storage, please make sure that you have stored extra water to be able to reconstitute the food. Also it is necessary to have good moisture control - needs to be dry in your storage area and containers.