Storing food newb - tips for mylar bagging

NCLivingBrit

NCLivingBrit

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So I'm not going nuts but I want to put away a 25lb bag of rice and assorted beans and a few odds and ends along with a plentitide of cans because I'm pretty sure groceries are going to be intermittent before too long. So, not prepping for a total breakdown just somewhat empty shelves along with some stuff for power failures.

I've got 10x14 mylar bags with a ziploc and some quart size bags set up the same as well as a sealer on the way.

Do I just fill the bags (either white rice for the big ones or bean medley for the small ones) and throw in an oxygen absorber before I squeeze out as much air as possible before closing the ziploc and then sealing the outer part? Or is there some art to it?
 
That’s pretty much what I do. I am no expert though I just started down this road myself. According to my YouTube research there are a few things that people recommend not to use o2 absorbers with like sugar for example. I don’t think it will ruin the sugar but from what I’ve seen and read it will make the sugar into a solid brick.
 
Bigdave0924 said:
That’s pretty much what I do. I am no expert though I just started down this road myself. According to my YouTube research there are a few things that people recommend not to use o2 absorbers with like sugar for example. I don’t think it will ruin the sugar but from what I’ve seen and read it will make the sugar into a solid brick.
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Yeah I got sugar in little sachets which I will just bag since it doesn't really go off and just needs defending from bugs and added water. I'm not storing for 30 years, just for the current idiot driven emergency. I figure either this will pass or the Geheimstatzpolizei will shoot me long term.

But looks like I'm good to go. Just trying to find sane prices for bucket screw top lids, they got higher than Willie Nelson.
 
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NCLivingBrit said:
Yeah I got sugar in little sachets which I will just bag since it doesn't really go off and just needs defending from bugs and added water. I'm not storing for 30 years, just for the current idiot driven emergency. I figure either this will pass or the Geheimstatzpolizei will shoot me long term.

But looks like I'm good to go. Just trying to find sane prices for bucket screw top lids, they got higher than Willie Nelson.
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I use totes from Home Depot. The “medium” size holds about 60# of rice in one gallon Mylar bags. There is room for a little more but those totes aren’t built very strong.
 
hp468 said:
That's all we do with mylar. Rice and beans we just toss in a bucket with a tight lid. 🤷‍♂️
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I figure with just me (and maybe the dog a little) eating it, a bucket full would get too much air from me getting rations out loose 8n the bucket so I'm going to mylar bag it since they're zip locks and eat out of those one at a time.

Going to store the bags in a tote if I can't find a better price on bucket lids lol
 
Bigdave0924 said:
I use totes from Home Depot. The “medium” size holds about 60# of rice in one gallon Mylar bags. There is room for a little more but those totes aren’t built very strong.
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Walmart has some large black squared off ones with textured yellow lids that will hold a couple hundred pounds of stuff, I use one for power tools and such and it holds more than my busted old self can lift just fine.
 
Brit, your approach will work fine, just add one thang: diatomaceous earth.

Rice has bugs in it already, and they will hatch more. Mix in a little Food Grade DE and when the bugs hatch, they will die. The DE rinses out when you cook the rice, and the dead bodies will go with it.
 
MacEntyre said:
Brit, your approach will work fine, just add one thang: diatomaceous earth.

Rice has bugs in it already, and they will hatch more. Mix in a little Food Grade DE and when the bugs hatch, they will die. The DE rinses out when you cook the rice, and the dead bodies will go with it.
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I admit I do not have much experience with this stuff but my understanding is if you remove the oxygen from the bag nothing can live in the bag. I know rice has bugs in it when you buy it but I thought the main reason for the o2 absorbers is to keep them from hatching.
 
Put food grade nitrogen inside the container first. Pour in desired food. Stand package with opening up and zip lock. Leave for a day or two. Nitrogen will force oxygen to the top.
Open zip lock, top with nitrogen, put in o2 absorbers, heat seal. Stack in storage containers. Check in a week to make sure Mylar bag is sucked down and turned into a brick. Done
I suggest measuring out the product you’re storing to approximate portion size. That will make it easier to manage. It will also decrease the amount of food lost if your seal fails on the Mylar.
Check products periodically to identify any seal failure.
I use food grade buckets from Lowes with gamma lids and totes from Wally World. Don’t use the see through plastic totes. Over time the plastic deterioration will render them useless. They also can’t be stacked with any real weight in them.
 
I use these totes from Home Depot. They are not the biggest one but on size smaller than the biggest. I’m pretty sure they are the 17 gallon they are about $12 each. They hold 12 bags with about 12 cups of rice per bag. It comes out to about 4.5# of rice per gallon Mylar bag. I had planned on using buckets and lids but this ended up being a lot cheaper and I have shelves that these totes fit on 050F87B6-2073-40BB-8B4D-DCEBA5F6B75A.jpeg5EC9B3DF-3233-4E82-A788-7204887969A3.jpeg
 
Bigdave0924 said:
I use these totes from Home Depot. They are not the biggest one but on size smaller than the biggest. I’m pretty sure they are the 17 gallon they are about $12 each. They hold 12 bags with about 12 cups of rice per bag. It comes out to about 4.5# of rice per gallon Mylar bag. I had planned on using buckets and lids but this ended up being a lot cheaper and I have shelves that these totes fit on View attachment 476070View attachment 476071
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Those are the ones I was talking about further up the thread, very strong and reasonably priced.
 
MacEntyre said:
Brit, your approach will work fine, just add one thang: diatomaceous earth.

Rice has bugs in it already, and they will hatch more. Mix in a little Food Grade DE and when the bugs hatch, they will die. The DE rinses out when you cook the rice, and the dead bodies will go with it.
Click to expand...

Good to know, thanks Mac!
 
Leadchunker said:
Put food grade nitrogen inside the container first. Pour in desired food. Stand package with opening up and zip lock. Leave for a day or two. Nitrogen will force oxygen to the top.
Open zip lock, top with nitrogen, put in o2 absorbers, heat seal. Stack in storage containers. Check in a week to make sure Mylar bag is sucked down and turned into a brick. Done
I suggest measuring out the product you’re storing to approximate portion size. That will make it easier to manage. It will also decrease the amount of food lost if your seal fails on the Mylar.
Check products periodically to identify any seal failure.
I use food grade buckets from Lowes with gamma lids and totes from Wally World. Don’t use the see through plastic totes. Over time the plastic deterioration will render them useless. They also can’t be stacked with any real weight in them.
Click to expand...
I suspect buying nitrogen is more than I want to invest, but that sounds like a solid procedure.
 
We use mylar bags and 02 absorbers. Store in 5 gal buckets or totes. We were going to get one of the bag sealers but found the wife's flat iron for her hair works just fine.

We fill bags with rice/beans/whatever and seal them all but a couple inches. Get all the bags ready; open pouch of O2 absorbers and take out quantity needed. Reseal O2 absorbers; drop individual ones in each bag; squeeze out what air you can then seal.

For us the nitrogen just seems belt and suspenders.
 
foopid stucker said:
I have heard of freezing rice and grains to kill off pests before bagging, HTH
also I would recommend steel (popcorn) tins if you may have mice or rodents. although they will rust.
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I researched their route as well and from what I read freezing the rice introduces moisture which could lead to mold.
 
Bigdave0924 said:
I use these totes from Home Depot. They are not the biggest one but on size smaller than the biggest. I’m pretty sure they are the 17 gallon they are about $12 each. They hold 12 bags with about 12 cups of rice per bag. It comes out to about 4.5# of rice per gallon Mylar bag. I had planned on using buckets and lids but this ended up being a lot cheaper and I have shelves that these totes fit on View attachment 476070View attachment 476071
Click to expand...
Those are great totes. I’m in the process of converting over to those.
 
Bigdave0924 said:
I researched their route as well and from what I read freezing the rice introduces moisture which could lead to mold.
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The possibility of moisture eliminated that process for me. The nitrogen process works very well. It is heavier than oxygen so it forces the o2 to the top of the container. Any residual o2 is handled by the o2 absorbers.
I have beans, rice, flour, pasta, corn meal, grits, popcorn, etc.
I utilize a combination of buckets, Mylar bags, and food grade plastic bottles for storage containers.
 
One very important thing to remember is shelf support. Make sure your shelving will support what your storing on it. The other very, very important thing is to use shoring to displace the shelving load on the flooring. Just because the shelf is rated at 1000 lbs doesn’t mean the floor is rated to support the small 2x2 angle iron foot of the shelf.
Yes I broke the floor under the my shelf.
 
Leadchunker said:
One very important thing to remember is shelf support. Make sure your shelving will support what your storing on it. The other very, very important thing is to use shoring to displace the shelving load on the flooring. Just because the shelf is rated at 1000 lbs doesn’t mean the floor is rated to support the small 2x2 angle iron foot of the shelf.
Yes I broke the floor under the my shelf.
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Oops. I'm not going nuts, heaviest thing will gallon jugs of water. I've found a spot over a floor joist so I should be good.
 
Leadchunker said:
One very important thing to remember is shelf support. Make sure your shelving will support what your storing on it. The other very, very important thing is to use shoring to displace the shelving load on the flooring. Just because the shelf is rated at 1000 lbs doesn’t mean the floor is rated to support the small 2x2 angle iron foot of the shelf.
Yes I broke the floor under the my shelf.
Click to expand...
I’ve worried about my ammo in a closet falling through the floor but never thought about food. I don’t have nearly enough food to worry about falling through the floor I guess I need to tighten up
 
NCLivingBrit said:
Oops. I'm not going nuts, heaviest thing will gallon jugs of water. I've found a spot over a floor joist so I should be good.
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Water bottles that are thick plastic are your best bet. The gallon water jugs will spring leaks at the corners on the bottom.
I have some water stored in coke and Pepsi bottles I’ve cleaned out. They have tap water in them with 5 drops of Clorox. Some of them are in the garage. Some are in the freezer. The coke bottles hold up to more abuse than Pepsi. The plastic seems to be thicker and it’s ribbed.
The Sams club juice bottles are the best if you can get them. Very thick and the mouth is larger. It’s easier to put beans in.
 
Leadchunker said:
Water bottles that are thick plastic are your best bet. The gallon water jugs will spring leaks at the corners on the bottom.
I have some water stored in coke and Pepsi bottles I’ve cleaned out. They have tap water in them with 5 drops of Clorox. Some of them are in the garage. Some are in the freezer. The coke bottles hold up to more abuse than Pepsi. The plastic seems to be thicker and it’s ribbed.
The Sams club juice bottles are the best if you can get them. Very thick and the mouth is larger. It’s easier to put beans in.
Click to expand...
I've not had problems with the gallon water jugs before and I had some of them for years when I was living in Louisburg
 
Leadchunker said:
Put food grade nitrogen inside the container first. Pour in desired food. Stand package with opening up and zip lock. Leave for a day or two. Nitrogen will force oxygen to the top.
Open zip lock, top with nitrogen, put in o2 absorbers, heat seal. Stack in storage containers. Check in a week to make sure Mylar bag is sucked down and turned into a brick. Done
I suggest measuring out the product you’re storing to approximate portion size. That will make it easier to manage. It will also decrease the amount of food lost if your seal fails on the Mylar.
Check products periodically to identify any seal failure.
I use food grade buckets from Lowes with gamma lids and totes from Wally World. Don’t use the see through plastic totes. Over time the plastic deterioration will render them useless. They also can’t be stacked with any real weight in them.
Click to expand...
If you successfully displace the oxygen with nitrogen, then the packs won’t suck down because the oxygen absorbers won’t do anything since they have no oxygen to react with.

Since your bags suck down it means that you aren’t displacing a significant portion of the oxygen. Maybe better to skip the nitrogen and just go up a size on the oxygen absorbers.
 
Car0linab0y said:
We use mylar bags and 02 absorbers. Store in 5 gal buckets or totes. We were going to get one of the bag sealers but found the wife's flat iron for her hair works just fine.
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We’ve used a clothes iron over a dish towel on a piece of 2x4 to great effect. When we got the freeze dryer, it came with a heat sealer and we now use that.

Note you can cut and reseal large bags into smaller ones.
 
noway2 said:
We’ve used a clothes iron over a dish towel on a piece of 2x4 to great effect. When we got the freeze dryer, it came with a heat sealer and we now use that.

Note you can cut and reseal large bags into smaller ones.
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Hrm, wonder if I could do a smaller bag with two sections, one of rice and one of beans. Like a meal kit.
 
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JimB said:
Someone recently suggested these guys , haven’t tried them yet.
discountmylarbags.com

(50) 8"x12"x4" 2 Quart Gusseted Ziplock Mylar Bag - 7.0 FDA Approved BPA Free

The 1 gallon Gusseted Mylar Bag is perfect for one person to fill and seal.
discountmylarbags.com discountmylarbags.com
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The ziplock makes it easier in that you don’t have to worry about the contents spilling out. Then you seal it, so it also allows for temporary reclose after opening.

Note Mylar bags with the see through side don’t preserve as long as full silver ones, but can be convenient for mid term storage of things like dehydrated fruit (buy in bulk at the farmers market and preserve it).
 
noway2 said:
The ziplock makes it easier in that you don’t have to worry about the contents spilling out. Then you seal it, so it also allows for temporary reclose after opening.

Note Mylar bags with the see through side don’t preserve as long as full silver ones, but can be convenient for mid term storage of things like dehydrated fruit (buy in bulk at the farmers market and preserve it).
Click to expand...
Yes, sorry, meant to link to their home page. They have a variety of products including mylar bags for vacuum sealers.
 
from the looks, im the only one that portions out in to vacuum bags, vac sealed and then toss in to a mylar bag then in to a tote of sort

redundant, sure, but it helps me keep track of what i have and adds a layer of protection.
 
backwoodsshooter said:
from the looks, im the only one that portions out in to vacuum bags, vac sealed and then toss in to a mylar bag then in to a tote of sort

redundant, sure, but it helps me keep track of what i have and adds a layer of protection.
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I portion into vacable mylar bags, add an o2 absorber, vac, then put into a plastic tote.
I have some in quart canning jars with o2 absorber, but they take a bunch of space, are heavy, and are pricey…but they look good on a shelf.
 
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