Vacuum packing and long term storage.

[Lemne]

I'm vacuum packing some of my foods at the mo but am wondering whether to add oxygen absorbers as well or is that just overkill. Would you also store vac bags inside a sealed container or just as is?

I've looked at Mylar bags but not sure they are worth the price if I already seal them. Advice gratefully received.

[jennyjj01]

I'm vacuum packing some of my foods at the mo but am wondering whether to add oxygen absorbers as well or is that just overkill. Would you also store vac bags inside a sealed container or just as is?

I've looked at Mylar bags but not sure they are worth the price if I already seal them. Advice gratefully received.

Definite no from me on oxygen absorbers and mylar.

I vac pack bags of flour, oats and dried fruit, mostly as a precaution against bursting or moisture. For dried veg, usually need to double bag in some way to prevent bursting. I never bother with oxygen absorbers. For loose stuff in bags, like porridge, I burst the bag first to let oxygen ( or often nitrogen ) get sucked out. Makes a bag of flour shrink like a brickette. Then box up those bricks and check from time to time for punctures.
For mushrooms or other crushables, I put in a jar and suck MOST of the air out and that seems to support long shelf life. Do that with something like a pickle jar. Loosely apply the lid: Pop it in a longer length of vac bag and start the vac process: Then give a hasty tighten of the lid while it's holding itself sucked in: Then re-use the bag several times. I don't spend on mason jars as I don't see why the jar should cost more than the food.

I aspire to rotate my bagged stuff into use within about a year and I've never had spoilage except for one batch of dehydrated leeks which went a bit brown like tobacco. I think that was because I left a bit of moisture in as well as not blanching them.

Dried fruit is just so moreish it doesn't get a chance to spoil.

Happily using dried carrots, onions, mushrooms and bagged oats way past a year or three beyond BBE date.

[Lemne]

I don't spend on mason jars as I don't see why the jar should cost more than the food.

I get mine from Home Bargains for 59p


Thanks for the advice and I will carry on as before. I've been doing a lot of reading and you start to doubt yourself as people have different levels of storage that suits them.

[jennyjj01]

I don't spend on mason jars as I don't see why the jar should cost more than the food.

I get mine from Home Bargains for 59p


Thanks for the advice and I will carry on as before. I've been doing a lot of reading and you start to doubt yourself as people have different levels of storage that suits them.

I use Kenko Coffee jars and Aldi Sweet and Sour jars. 55p gets you a jar full of free cooking sauce and though Kenko jars aren't air tight, they are big and plentiful and almost all my in-use larder ingredients pass through them.

Many sites about food storing are based on advice from the USA where the climate is more hostile and where food standards are 'different' E.g. the advice to freeze out weevils in flour seems to not be necessary in the UK.

Remember that most supermarket plastic bagged ingredients are already in oxygen depleted, nitrogen or CO2. E.g that's why crisps and cheese last so much longer than they did in our childhood days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_atmosphere

Back to your question about oxygen absorbers... I think the place for them is in large plastic buckets of loose grains and pulses. . . Which I don't employ.

I just can't rave enough about dehydrating and vac packing. and USING dehydrated foods day to day. Got to rotate your stocks a bit and that means adjusting your staple diet. A handful of dried carrots. onions, mushroom, garlic takes a simple cooking sauce to another level. Pad out minced beef with soya and you can rotate stocks un-noticed

[PreppingPingu]

Just bought a vacumn sealer and am waiting for it to arrive. In my Sainbury's they are selling HUGE catering size bags of flour down to £5 from the £8 so I figured as I was going to buy a vacumn sealer anyhow, now might be a good time to do it! Thought it will be a good accompaniment to my dehydrator.

"I use Kenko Coffee jars" Yes I use those for my rice when I decant from the massive 5-10kg bags I tend to buy. Then the cupboard just has a jar or two of rice in it and the giant bag is stored elsewhere.

"I get mine from Home Bargains for 59p" Yes I am due a trip there with my daughter soon who is obsessed with Home Bargains and keeps telling me that I would love it! We only recently had one open in our area pre-pandemic so not been there yet.

[cbp125]

I dehyrade and vacuum seal but I don't use oxygen abzorbers, but I do double bag, I vacuum seal into the plastic bags then I store them inside mylar bags.

The mylar bags cut out uv light to help it last longer and it also prevents food spells spoiling nearby goods.

An example would be I dehydrate 9 trays of garlic in my excaliber dehyradtor, I then vacuum seal in plastic to remove/reduce oxygen to a reasonable level then I put it into the mylar bags. I can then store my dried garlic, onions and bananas and apples all on the shelf next to each other. If I did not use the mylar bags I would end up with garlic flavoured banana chips and onion flavoured apple rings lol.

If you put strong smelling foods in plastic you can still smell them as the flavours leak out.

I am happy to eat food stored this way for upto 5 or 10 years depending on what it is, always following the if in doubt don't eat it rule.

I think the oxygen abzorbers are for longer term storage aka 25 year supply. I do not have the room or the inclination to store over 5 years, if all the shops run out of food for over 5 years you have more to worry about than food....

[Lemne]

In my Sainbury's they are selling HUGE catering size bags of flour down to £5 from the £8 so I figured as I was going to buy a vacumn sealer anyhow, now might be a good time to do it! Thought it will be a good accompaniment to my dehydrator.

I bought a 16kg bag of plain flour and split it into smaller bags during lockdown. I tried to vacuum seal them but gave up after 2 bags. The flour is pulled up into the top and it doesn't seal properly. You can put a piece of kitchen roll across the top to stop the flour seeping up into the vacuum but then the flour doesn't go solid. I have now started buying normal sized bags and sticking the whole thing into the plastic bag and vacuum sealing it. Goes rock solid like a brick.

Just thought I'd mention it.

[Tankford]

Does anyone have any recommendations for large vacuum sealers? It is something I want to start doing but not sure what to use.

T.

[jennyjj01]

In my Sainbury's they are selling HUGE catering size bags of flour down to £5 from the £8 so I figured as I was going to buy a vacumn sealer anyhow, now might be a good time to do it! Thought it will be a good accompaniment to my dehydrator.

I bought a 16kg bag of plain flour and split it into smaller bags during lockdown. I tried to vacuum seal them but gave up after 2 bags. The flour is pulled up into the top and it doesn't seal properly. You can put a piece of kitchen roll across the top to stop the flour seeping up into the vacuum but then the flour doesn't go solid. I have now started buying normal sized bags and sticking the whole thing into the plastic bag and vacuum sealing it. Goes rock solid like a brick.

Just thought I'd mention it.

To stop the flour from getting pulled to the seal, put in a regulat freezer or ziplok bag which is almost sealed, squash out what air you can then put in the vac bag with the almost sealed edge in first. then vac and double seal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPx9WMGH-uc

[jennyjj01]

Does anyone have any recommendations for large vacuum sealers? It is something I want to start doing but not sure what to use.

T.

Something like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07 ... UTF8&psc=1

ALDI or LIDL sell something like, once a year