Storage advice please

[dangerman]

I've been sticking a few bits and bobs aside mostly with a view to evacuation but I also keep my cupboards stocked with simple things like rice, pasta, oats and nuts etc. I have a small wheelie bag that's full of tins (I think this is a good idea, even my three year old can pull it along comfortably) which has about three comfortable days supply of food for my family of five (soon to be six).

The thing is, I put this little wheelie bag in the porch, ready to throw into the boot of the car at a minutes notice, and I'm now worried that the food may have gone bad in the extreme weather conditions. It gets very hot in there and then it gets very cold. Sometimes I've noticed the hot sunlight shining directly on the bag which is very hot indeed through the glass.

Is my food ruined?

Also, I found that I have been too busy to buy any shopping this last week. We ran out of cereal and milk and so I grabbed a bag of oats that I had at the back of the cupboard. It must be a fair while since I stashed these, about two years I'd say. But I have done this before with no problem, and guidelines I've read online say that they could be good for 3-5 years. The thing is that when I looked into the bag today, a plastic bag that still held the original factory air, inflated well, there were little webs inside. The oats were suspended in one corner as if a spider had been in there.

This concerns me. For one, how am I supposed to be able to store oats and other grains safely long term if this method isn't working, and also, why would a spider be looking for flies inside a packet of oats? Are spiders getting more stupid?

[featherstick]

You could sample the tins - 10% or so, should give you an indication if you take it from different categories. Certainly extremes of temperature are not thought to be best for tins.

Oats- dunno. Spiders are pretty stupid, but you may have had mites or something else. Cook it up and taste it.

[Decaff]

Personally I would check the tins for signs of bloating and would also be wary of contents, open, smell and taste a tiny bit the day BEFORE you want to consume, if you are willing to try it.

Oats, flours, grains, pasta etc ALL have weevils in, but it sounds like you have moths in your oats its just that being in the cupboard has given them a chance to hatch. What you should do with all these types of food for storage is put them in your deep freeze for a couple of days, in original packaging, put flour and those in the paper style bags inside a plastic bag first to protect from getting damp. Then remove after a couple of days, leave to get to room temperature and then store them in a plastic airtight container in the cupboard.

You may want to empty the cupboard and check all your dried food for the same problem and wash out with a mild bleach solution, thoroughly dry and store all food in containers.

Hope this helps and hope you haven't lost too much food.

[dangerman]

Wow man, that's a lot of work and prep! I suppose this is what I'm signed up for though, as a poor person and all that. Can't pay someone else to do it for me, innit. Thanks for the info, I'll make it a weekend project and see how it pans out. I've not lost too much food but I was annoyed I couldn't eat my porridge this morning.

I'll get onto my tinned food over the next year or so, I'll eat some and change it out each time I go on wild camps. If the food is bad I can always just eat the backup snacks that I don't go anywhere without. Most of it is cheap bits and bobs anyway like tuna and cake.

I think I could live indefinitely on tuna and cake. Especially that Heinz/cadbury chocolate pudding. Actually, I'll have a look and see if it's still good now and let you know...

[preppingsu]

I had a packet of long spaghetti with what you describe and guess what? It didn't go in the freezer before I put it in my stash.

Yes it is hard work but for longer storage it has to be done. Consider Mylar packaging with oxygen absorbers as well.

[Decaff]

It sounds a lot of work but your food needs to be safe to eat or its a waste of money to store it.

Once cleaned out you should store all dry food, grains and flours in plasticor glass containers so should you have the same problem again then you will only need to empty one container rather than the whole cupboard.

Freezing it only needs to be done once, it doesn't matter if you leave it in longer but it needs to be long enough to kill the buggers

Get the hoover nozzle in there to get every bit of dust, food out before you wash it and you won't have to do again for a long long time.

Good that you found it now rather than in an emergency situation where you couldn't replace it!

[dangerman]

Cracking info you lot. This forum is brilliant, there is no way I would have figured this out without you.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

[Arzosah]

It *is* cracking, isn't it I've considered myself a prepper for ages, but I don't do all of this ... I check cans for dents, by the way, that much I *do* do

[PreparedKent]

I'm a real fan of canned food, the majority of my peeps are canned. You can anything, on conserva.de they have stuff canned that you would never imagine!!

Cans can just sit in the cupboard for years, so long as you use what you store and store what you use you will rotate things well. Even my misses can get her head around this one and always keeps "the Ebola cupboard" well stocked