Long term food storage - buy or make? If make then what kit to use?

[Omega]

Hi, everyone,
I looked at options of buying long storage rice in the UK and found none. However, after watching YouTube, I concluded I can make my own using vacuum sealant, sealing bags and oxygen absorbers (do they really take oxygen out? Then there must be a chemical reaction and this will leave some residues...)
It looks like I can do the same with beans, buckwheat and some other grains
When it comes to vegetables, I learnt that I can buy Freeze dried vegetables that seem to be very expensive, or buy dehydrator and make my own. As I understand, fruits and vegetables from a normal dehydrator will last for 5-15 years, is it correct? 15 years is good enough for me, but 5 feels short seeing how I am doing poorly with flour and rice rotation. And freeze dried fruits and vegetables last for 20-25 years which is definitely enough for me...
Could you advise me how to choose dehydrator and/or freeze drier? Should I look at freeze drier (I did not find any for lower price than £2.5k) or dehydrator instead? I do not want having a lot of food stored in the house, absolutely maximum 6 months, but most likely around 2 months without what I have in the fridge and pantry
I got solar panels installed and Tesla battery is coming early this summer, so I have plenty of electricity. I need to buy the rest
I intend storing food in my garage because it is the most convenient storage location for me
Thanks

[Vitamin c]

I bought several kilos of past at the time of the ebola outbreak around 2015 , still eating it now 8 years later its the aldi 20p for 500g packs of spaghetti now around 30p .
Cheap long lasting, just store in a cool dark place .
Don't spent your cash on fancy prepper shop goods ,rice also stored the same way will last for many years.

You can put rice in 2lit pop bottles because their food grade ,this will last many years.

[jansman]

Hi, everyone,
I looked at options of buying long storage rice in the UK and found none. However, after watching YouTube, I concluded I can make my own using vacuum sealant, sealing bags and oxygen absorbers (do they really take oxygen out? Then there must be a chemical reaction and this will leave some residues...)
It looks like I can do the same with beans, buckwheat and some other grains
When it comes to vegetables, I learnt that I can buy Freeze dried vegetables that seem to be very expensive, or buy dehydrator and make my own. As I understand, fruits and vegetables from a normal dehydrator will last for 5-15 years, is it correct? 15 years is good enough for me, but 5 feels short seeing how I am doing poorly with flour and rice rotation. And freeze dried fruits and vegetables last for 20-25 years which is definitely enough for me...
Could you advise me how to choose dehydrator and/or freeze drier? Should I look at freeze drier (I did not find any for lower price than £2.5k) or dehydrator instead? I do not want having a lot of food stored in the house, absolutely maximum 6 months, but most likely around 2 months without what I have in the fridge and pantry
I got solar panels installed and Tesla battery is coming early this summer, so I have plenty of electricity. I need to buy the rest
I intend storing food in my garage because it is the most convenient storage location for me
Thanks

Well rice,beans, pasta etc. will last years just kept dark and dry. Ain’t difficult. My own of those are kept in original packets,anti moisture pouches thrown in food buckets ,lids on,dated and stuck on shelves in pantry. Simples. As for beans I grow,I make sure they dry properly,into jars,anti moisture,lid on,into pantry. If I buy them in,same as pasta and rice,just leave in packets.

Mind you,I find this type of long term storage rather lazy. Fit and Forget you might say. Far better to store a load initially as I do ,then add and ROTATE.Then you know it keeps!

[Winterprep]

I can’t recommend a freeze dryer away too expensive at the moment.Excalibur dehydrators seem to be the go to. I have a four tray one and wish I had bought the larger version just for economics of running.

As for storing rice/pasta I am currently rotating out and eating stuff I put away over thirteen years ago. Just normal shop bought rice/pasta that I stuck in Mylar bags with an absorber and sealed,not vacuum sealed. I then stuck these in a food grade bucket and they are now stored in my shed outside. The storage area in my shed is separate from the main and is insulated and plasterboarded.

Most of the rice/pasta that I’m putting away now is just in the original bags and sealed again in a food grade bucket and I’m sure that will last just as long.

WP

[Frnc]

I did buy a big tin of scrambled egg with cheese from Fuel Your Preparation that lasts about 25 years when I first started prepping. But now I just keep a couple of months worth of ordinary food with a shelf life of at least a year, and rotate it. Most dried stuff plus tins and jars have at least a year or two. I do keep a few freeze dried meals with about 5-7 year life in my EGB.

[jennyjj01]

Hi, everyone,
I looked at options of buying long storage rice in the UK and found none. However, after watching YouTube, I concluded I can make my own using vacuum sealant, sealing bags and oxygen absorbers (do they really take oxygen out? Then there must be a chemical reaction and this will leave some residues...)
It looks like I can do the same with beans, buckwheat and some other grains

Oxygen absorbers use a simple chemical reaction with iron oxide and water. No nasty residues.
That said, if you suck the air out, you have no oxygen to absorb.
Also, moisture absorption uses silica gel which is odourless, tasteless and non-toxic, but again, if you suck the air out, moisture is out too.
For rice and dried pasta, you can decant into milk or pop bottles, thoroughly washed and dried, or you can just pop small bags in a food grade bucket with optional silica gel. It'll easily last a decade in a cool dry place.
Bear in mind that our food reserves are to provide a buffer of months in which to learn how to make or acquire food. It's not to feed you forever.

I wouldn't recommend a freeze drier for home use. a 9 tray dehydrator is great for storing veges to be used for making soups and sauces, but read the posts here. It's not a truly reversible process, so don't expect your veg to ever return to the same (except maybe pulses)

When it comes to vegetables, I learnt that I can buy Freeze dried vegetables that seem to be very expensive, or buy dehydrator and make my own. As I understand, fruits and vegetables from a normal dehydrator will last for 5-15 years, is it correct? 15 years is good enough for me, but 5 feels short seeing how I am doing poorly with flour and rice rotation. And freeze dried fruits and vegetables last for 20-25 years which is definitely enough for me...Could you advise me how to choose dehydrator and/or freeze drier? Should I look at freeze drier (I did not find any for lower price than £2.5k) or dehydrator instead? I do not want having a lot of food stored in the house, absolutely maximum 6 months, but most likely around 2 months without what I have in the fridge and pantry

Seriously, it sounds like you plan to feed yourself for life from your dried stuff. That's not living, in my book. If you have a couple of years rations, you spend a couple of years learning to grow or hunt or form community food programs.
Freeze dried food is unlike home dehydrated. It's stupid expensive for much more than a few camping snack packs. Don't buy survivalist freeze dried, look for the equiv product in supermarkets, such as pot noodles vespa rice etc.

I got solar panels installed and Tesla battery is coming early this summer, so I have plenty of electricity. I need to buy the rest
I intend storing food in my garage because it is the most convenient storage location for me
Thanks

Seriously, consider food rotation. Let your garage become your go-to corner shop and your purchases of bulk foods be your corner shop restocking. That way, you deal with rotation and you ensure you don't overlook anything.

[Omega]

Thank you for recommendations
About storing - are there transparent quality boxes for storing food? I found several food grade storage buckets, but I want tall transparent boxes because I want to see what I have in each box, not only the label. Or any transparent box is enough because I intend to vacuum seal the food?
About rice, pasta, beans - so, if I simply seal them in vacuum sealing bags, put double seal, then it should be ok for circa 10 years? Then I can place them "standing" in the storage box so that I can easily pick what I want without disturbing the rest
Spoke to my wife - she likes the idea of dehydrator. Any recommendations what I should buy and characteristics? I saw Sous Vide, Buffalo, BioChef and Excalibur seem to have good reputations. Some seem to be quite small, I wonder what size and power/other characteristics I should look at? Would you trust reviews from BBC Good Food and Standard? I would think they are reputable information sources. I see the costs of dehydrators are usually below £200, is it worth paying more because it will have some additional characteristics? Or maybe I could get some additional useful features, like air fryer/dehydrator (I believe Ninja, Chefman, Gourmet Professional and Breville makes them, at least they are marketed as Air Fryers and Dehydrators on Amazon) https://www.standard.co.uk/shopping/esb ... 21729.html https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/review/best ... w-use-them
Decided not to buy freeze drier, dehydrator seem to be much cheaper option
Thank you

[jennyjj01]

Thank you for recommendations
About storing - are there transparent quality boxes for storing food? I found several food grade storage buckets, but I want tall transparent boxes because I want to see what I have in each box, not only the label. Or any transparent box is enough because I intend to vacuum seal the food?
About rice, pasta, beans - so, if I simply seal them in vacuum sealing bags, put double seal, then it should be ok for circa 10 years? Then I can place them "standing" in the storage box so that I can easily pick what I want without disturbing the rest
Spoke to my wife - she likes the idea of dehydrator. Any recommendations what I should buy and characteristics? I saw Sous Vide, Buffalo, BioChef and Excalibur seem to have good reputations. Some seem to be quite small, I wonder what size and power/other characteristics I should look at? Would you trust reviews from BBC Good Food and Standard? I would think they are reputable information sources. I see the costs of dehydrators are usually below £200, is it worth paying more because it will have some additional characteristics? Or maybe I could get some additional useful features, like air fryer/dehydrator (I believe Ninja, Chefman, Gourmet Professional and Breville makes them, at least they are marketed as Air Fryers and Dehydrators on Amazon) https://www.standard.co.uk/shopping/esb ... 21729.html https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/review/best ... w-use-them
Decided not to buy freeze drier, dehydrator seem to be much cheaper option
Thank you

Dehydrators. Mine's the 9 tray version of this Sous Vide https://www.amazon.co.uk/SousVideTools- ... 075DBPR7W/

They are very simple devices. The only nice to have feature would be a timer, but you can pick a timer up for 3 quid from home bargain or am a zon.
Metal trays better than plastic, and augment with chip frying mesh trays from somewhere like Dunelm, B&M or the Range. Food falls through the supplied trays as it shrinks.
My favourites to dehydrate: Tomatoes, Carrots, Onions, Peppers, Garlic, Mushrooms.Anything yellow stickered or plentiful. Least successful, Spuds. Funniest: Celery.
Whatever you dehydrate, have a real try at rehydrating or using BEFORE TSHTF.
No real need to vac seal your bags of rice. If you do, puncture them first. They will go hard as bricks. Definitely double seal as vac bags often burst. They WILL burst with pasta shapes.

Dehydrated food is REALLY heavy, so if you are thinking of stacking boxes, DON'T, without shelves between. If stacked, they are likely to crush the lower boxes, which will be a PITA to get to anyway.