Five Easy Steps to a Food Storage Plan

A Plan that Will Work for Your Family

Suggestions and Techniques

A Prepared Pantry Publication

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Five Easy Steps to a Food Storage Plan

We hope you never have to use your food storage but we hope you choose to use it every week.

We’re used to running to the store every time we need something. But what if we can’t? Maybe the store is out—recently many of the stores in eastern Idaho were out of flour. Maybe there’s an extended storm or a power outage or terrorist event or . . .. We can think of dozens of scenarios where we would have to rely on what we have on hand. If we don’t like what we have on hand, we’re going to be miserable. If we don’t have anything on hand, it will be worse.

If we use our stored food every week, we’ll have on hand what we like and what we can eat. There will be no surprises.

We think you’ll find a sensible approach to food storage in these pages—eat what you store and store what you eat.

We hope that you’ll consider it.

The Prepared Pantry

2 North Landmark Lane

Rigby, ID 83442

208-745-7892

www.preparedpantry.com

Copyright 2005-8, The Prepared Pantry. All rights reserved.

The material herein is published by The Prepared Pantry for the private use of individuals and may not be used for commercial purposes without the express consent of the publisher. The information contained herein is believed accurate but the publisher makes no warranties, express or implied, and the recipient is using this information at his or her own risk.

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Five Easy Steps to a Food Storage Plan

Table of Contents

Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... 3

Food Storage Available at The Prepared Pantry..................................................................... 4

Why Everyone Should Have a Stock of Food ......................................................................... 4

Will I Really Have to Use My food Storage? ........................................................................... 5

How to Save Money and Build a Personal Food Storage Program that Works...................... 5

Five Easy Steps to a Food Storage Program that Works........................................................ 6

A Personal Food Storage Program Saves Money in Three Ways: ......................................... 7

Rotate, Rotate, Rotate ............................................................................................................. 7

Fats: Storing Butter, Oil and Other Products ........................................................................... 7

Why Good Food Goes Bad ..................................................................................................... 8

Shelf Life: How Long Does Food Really Last.......................................................................... 8

Bread: The Staff of Life............................................................................................................ 9

Why Grocery Store Foods Don't Store Well ............................................................................ 9

Make Your Own Mixes........................................................................................................... 10

Appendix: Family Preparedness Bulletin #4 (Storing Oils and Fats) .................................... 11

Free 250-page Baking Book.................................................................................................. 14

Free Baking Guides ............................................................................................................... 14

Free Recipe Collections ........................................................................................................ 14

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Food Storage Available at The Prepared Pantry

The Prepared Pantry sells baking mixes packaged in Mylar which greatly extends the shelf life. In proper storage conditions, many of these mixes will store as long beans, dried milk, and some other staples. Mixes containing nuts, cornmeal, and baking chips should only be stored for six months and not in a warm place.

See our mixes and other products recommended for food storage >>

Our recommended products include breads mixes such as Country Farm White Bread, Honey Wheat Bread, and Golden Honey Oat and cookie mixes such as Snickerdoodles and Chocolate Sugarsnaps.

Other kitchen items suitable for food storage and found in this section are dried honey and molasses crystals, yeast, and dry dairy products such as sour cream.

Why Everyone Should Have a Stock of Food

We live in complex and perilous times. Whether it is a natural disaster, a national disaster, or a neighborhood disaster, our food supply could be disrupted. In any scenario, it is up to us to take care of our needs and those of our families--we should not count on the government. We buy insurance for our home, our car, and our lives but something as essential as food--we often leave overlooked.

There are other crises as well--personal crises. The loss of a job, a loved one, or one's health might strain personal finances and make a supply of food look very attractive. Whether it is a personal crisis or a community one, we should be able to feed our family and feed them with food that is healthy and that they enjoy eating. In a crisis, our food supply should be a point of comfort and refuge.

There's a certain confidence that goes along with being self-reliant, with preparedness. If we know we have provided for our family--if we know they are safe--we perform better. We're happier and they're happier. We're better parents, citizens, and neighbors and we perform better outside the home.

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Will I Really Have to Use My food Storage?

We hope that you are never faced with a emergency but food storage is not new and it seems that most people who have had long-term food storage have utilized it at least once in the past. Usually, it wasn't because of a public emergency but a personal difficulty of some kind--an economic setback brought about by illness, the loss of a job, or an accident. But times have changed. We expect that community crises--from terrorists to computer failures--will make food storage an even more important issue in the future.

How to Save Money and Build a Personal Food Storage Program that Works

Food storage programs that work are built around one simple principle: Store what you eat and eat what you store. Store what you like, what you know how to fix, and whatyour bodies are accustomed to. When an emergency comes, we will want to disrupt our eating patterns as little as possible. Most of what we eat today, from main dishes, to breads, to desserts, can be accommodated with storage items. Store them.

Eat what you store. All foods deteriorate over time. They become less palatable and the vitamin content decreases. If you don't use your food, you will throw it out. Surveys have shown that people regularly overestimate how long food lasts. Governmental and university experts publish shelf lives much shorter than what some manufacturers and individuals suggest. The best way to assure that you will have a good supply of food in an emergency is to regularly eat what you store, using it before it becomes marginal, and replace it. Eating what you store is not a challenge if you store what you like to eat.

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Five Easy Steps to a Food Storage Program that Works

1. Determine what you like to eat. Make a list of what you are eating now. Start with your grocery list or grocery receipts. Look in your pantry. These foods are what you want to store. Storing foods that your family likes to eat--not trying to persuade your family to like what you store--is the key to practical food storage. Fundamentally changing what your family likes to eat is not a realistic expectation. While it may be true that "if our kids get hungry enough, they'll eat anything," who wants to put their children through that kind of misery? In a hardship, we want to maintain our routines and habits as much as possible and not stress family members with foods that they do not like or that their bodies are unaccustomed to.

2. Determine how much of what you like to eat is storable. Build your storage program around these items. For those items that are not storable, look for ready substitutes that your family will enjoy. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be complemented with frozen and canned produce. Meats can be purchased on sale or in bulk and frozen. Mixes will readily substitute for the breads, desserts, and snacks you currently buy.

3. Purchase storable foods regularly. Keep your plan simple and affordable but buy storable foods regularly. Every week, every pay period, or every month buy something that you can store. You will be surprised how fast your stocksbuild. Buy items on sale and buy in quantity so that you save money. Think in terms of stocking up, not storing. Replace what you use.

4. Eat what you store. As a general rule, even storable foods need to be used within two years. The FDA suggests that canned goods be consumed within two years. Using your stocks regularly will keep your food fresher, tastier, and more nutritious.

5. Take inventory. From time to time, take inventory. You will be reminded of what you have and surprised at what you don't have. You can then purchase those items you need and use older items while they are still sound.

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A Personal Food Storage Program Saves Money in Three Ways:

1. Stocking up leads to buying in quantity or on sale--often with substantial savings. If we store what we eat and use those foods regularly, we save on everyday food.

2. Foods suitable for storage tend to be less expensive than prepared foods. As we gradually rely more and more on our stocks, we use less prepared food and the average cost of our meals is reduced.

3. Habits and attitudes change with a food storage program. Those that have a personal food storage program tend to be more careful with their food purchases and better utilize the foods they purchase.

Many families find that when they adopt a program of purchasing and using storable foods, their food bill drops substantially--as much as 25%.

Rotate, Rotate, Rotate

We believe that most foods--including the products that we provide--should be used within two years for both palatability and nutritional reasons. Foods stored longer than that, though they may be safe to eat, are less appealing and less nutritious. The only way to build a food storage program that ensures that you will have safe, palatable, nutritious food on hand in an emergency is to continuously rotate stocks.

Fats: Storing Butter, Oil and Other Products

Our bodies need fat--good fat--and yet most fats are fragile and don't store well. Oil oxidizes and becomes rancid as it ages-a process that is accelerated by heat, light, and oxygen. So store your oil in a cool, dark location and rotate it often. (For more information about storing fats, see "Family Preparedness Bulletin #1: Storing Oils and Fats" available on this site.)

In order to maximize the storage life of our products, we do not add oil, shortening, or butter. We believe that the freshest oil or butter possible should be added when mixed.

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Why Good Food Goes Bad

Assuming that you have stored your valuable food where bugs and water can't reach it, can it still go bad? Well, that depends on your definition of "bad". As stated elsewhere, properly canned or dried foods (if fat free or nearly so) usually do not become unsafe when stored longer than recommended, but palatability and nutrient value are diminished. So while it probably won't go "bad" as in unsafe, it will become less nutritious or less appealing.

All, or nearly all foods, deteriorate over time. Living organisms are designed with self-preservation mechanisms but when they die or are harvested, naturally occurring enzymes cause discoloration, loss of nutrients, textural changes, or flavor changes. We can slow these changes; we can't stop them.

The three enemies of stored foods are light, heat, and oxygen. Most foods deteriorate in the presence of light, heat, and oxygen. UV rays damage foods. Fats oxidize just as metals oxidize (rust) in the presence of oxygen. Heat accelerates these processes. To counteract these destructive forces, store food at cool temperatures, in opaque packages, and in airtight, oxygen depleted containers. (Plastic bags are not effective long term oxygen barriers. Nearly all plastic sheeting lets oxygen seep through. In the trade, it is known as the "oxygen transfer rate".)

Most of our products are sold in Mylar packages. The oxygen transfer rate is very low in metal based containers, less that 1/400th of the best plastic bags.

Shelf Life: How Long Does Food Really Last

As you might expect, there is a wide range of published shelf lives. Because foods deteriorate over time, rather than becoming unsafe, they lose quality and nutritional value. But since it is a gradual process, what is acceptable to your neighbor may not be acceptable to you. Since shelf life is partly a matter of judgment and preference, even scientists differ in their evaluations. When in doubt, rely on governmental sources.

We encourage our customers to rotate products by using them before they get old. In so doing, the best in quality and nutrition is captured. We suggest that all dried products and most canned products be stored in a cool environment and used in two years or less. We recommend that products containing nuts and whole wheat be used in one year and all other products be used in two years. Those products with nuts and whole wheat are so noted on both the product packages and our literature. We package nuts

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separately so that you can check them for staleness before using. Products can be used beyond the recommended periods but performance and nutrition may be reduced.

Bread: The Staff of Life

Americans (and many other cultures) serve bread with nearly every meal. Meals don't seem complete without some form of bread. No wonder it's called the "staff of life". We believe that bread is a key consideration in any food storage program.

How do you store bread? Some rely on wheat as their source of bread in the event of an emergency. If you are into grinding wheat and baking bread regularly--bravo! The rest of us need a better answer. We don't have time to grind wheat and bake bread, or we haven't acquired those skills, or our families don't like the heavy, dense bread that usually comes from ground wheat. We need a better answer.

If the bread that we eat is going to be a key component of our food storage program, then making bread should be quick and convenient. Mixes help. Not only do they save time when time may be a premium, but all the ingredients are available and assembled.

Stored foods often are boring or dry. Boring foods don't work well in a food storage program because they don't get used and eventually become stale. Our mission is to provide food that you will use and enjoy. In an emergency, we want to lift your spirits. Instead of meals from food storage being a burden, we want them to be enjoyable and comforting. That's why we provide products that are exciting and different, that will add interest and variety to your meals, everyday—not just in an emergency.

Why Grocery Store Foods Don't Store Well

Most grocery foods are not packaged for long-term storage. Instead, they are packaged inexpensively, suitable for consumption within a few weeks. Plastic and paper containers do not provide adequate oxygen barriers. Unless you are willing to repackage the food you buy at the grocery store, using metal containers or bags, do not consider grocery store products suitable for long-term storage and family preparedness.

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Make Your Own Mixes

Save time, save money, or put some away for food storage—you can make some of your own mixes. It's easy to get started, a great way to put a little food by, and a great solution to a busy day. Generally, mixes should cut your prep time by about 75%.

Mixes can be grouped into three categories:

• Mixes that require refrigeration or freezing.• Mixes that contain some added fat such as butter or shortening• Mixes that are fat free or nearly so.

Be sure to store dry mixes in a cool, dry environment in airtight containers. You should plan on using mixes without added shortening or other fat in 6 to 12 months. Mixes with fat added should be used within three months. Be sure and label and date your mixes.

Here are some recipes to get you started. Often though, you can convert your favorite recipes to mixes.

All Purpose Hamburger Mix

5 pounds of ground beef or turkey1 tablespoon salt1 cup chopped onions1 cup chopped green peppers1 cup chopped celery

You may substitute other vegetables to suit your family's taste.

Brown the ground meat and drain the grease. Add the chopped vegetables, cover, and steam.The vegetables should be a little crisper than what you would usually serve. Set aside to cool

Spoon into freezer containers. Poke with a knife or fork to remove any air pockets. Cover with a tight lid and freeze for up to three months.

Use in your favorite ground beef recipe such as chili, enchiladas, or casseroles. Thaw and add as the recipe directs for freshly browned meat.

Note: Spices lose their potency in the freezer. Add any spices during final cooking.

All Purpose Hamburger Mix II

Here's a link to another great ground beef mix that can be used for lasagna, casseroles, or other beef dishes. This is a dry mix that you add to hamburger as you cook it. Click here to see.

Calico Bean Soup

Many of us have dry beans in our food storage. Often, those beans do not get used until they are hard and very difficult to cook. Combining beans and split peas into a calico bean soup mix and packaging the beans into usable quantities means that they are more likely to get used.

2 cups pinto beans2 cups split peas or lentils

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2 cups kidney beans 2 cups Great Northern beans2 cups black-eyed peas

(Use the mixture of legumes that best suits your tastes.)

Mix well and divide into two-cup packages or another size suitable for your family.

California Seasoned Rice Mix

3 cups uncooked regular white rice1/4 cup dried parsley flakes2 Tbsp. instant chicken flavor bouillon1/4 teaspoon white pepper2 tablespoons dried, minced onions2 tsp. onion powder1/2 tsp. garlic powder1/4 tsp. dried thyme leaves

To make California Seasoned Rice, bring two cups of water to boil. Add two tablespoon butter or margarine and one cup of the mix. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed.

Appendix: Family Preparedness Bulletin #4 (Storing Oils and Fats)

Storing Oils and Fats

The human body requires the intake of six types of substances for survival: Fats, carbohydrates, proteins, water, vitamins, and minerals. Certain fatty acids are essential to our health and fats and oils are important components of our food and their preparation. Fat is responsible for much of the texture, appearance, and taste of our baked goods. Since fat is both required for human health and an important part of our diets, we should include fat in our emergency preparedness plans--some combination of butter, margarine, vegetable oil, olive oil, and shortening. (Oils are liquid at room temperature; fats are solid.) Though we need to store these foods to maintain our lifestyles and our health, they represent a particular food storage challenge. As oils and fats age, they oxidize. Oxidation is the process that turns fats rancid. Rancid foods not only taste bad, they are unhealthy. As fats and oils breakdown, they become toxic. These oxidized oils promote arterial damage, cancer, inflammation, degenerative diseases, and premature aging.1 So it is important that we store fats properly, use all fatty foods well before they become rancid, and discard those foods that have been stored too long.

So what is the proper way to store fats and oils? Three conditions accelerate the oxidation of fats: the exposure to heat, to oxygen, and to light. Fats should be stored in cool or cold conditions-never in a warm pantry-in the dark, and sealed so that they are not exposed to air. We store our vegetable oil, olive oil, and shortening in a dark, fifty-degree room. Once opened, we store our vegetable and olive oils in the refrigerator.

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How long can we safely store fats and oils? That, of course, depends on the storage conditions. At seventy degrees, shortening can be kept for eight months.2 Butter does not last long at all in the refrigerator-only two weeks-but can be stored for up to nine months in the freezer (not the freezing compartment of a refrigerator which is usually not as cold).3 Margarine can also be frozen though some margarine tends to be flaky once thawed. While I do not have a government source for the shelf life of vegetable oils, I would not store oils for over eight to ten months.4 My recommendation is to store butter in the freezer for up to nine months and store oils and shortening for eight months at seventy degrees--slightly longer at cooler temperatures. Maybe more so than any other food group, fatty foods must be carefully and conscientiously rotated to maintain adequate and healthy stocks. Use what you store and store what you use.

Not just oils and fats have to be carefully stored. Any food with a significant fat content such as nuts, cookies, or whole wheat flour is subject to rancidity. Nuts should be stored in a cool, dark environment and always checked for rancidity before they are used. Ideally, nuts should be stored in metal or metalized containers-plastic bags are permeable to air and slowly allow oxygen to seep into the package and accelerate oxidation. We keep our nuts in the freezer-even unopened bags. Freshly ground whole wheat should be kept in the refrigerator and used within two weeks. (The commercial milling process removes most of the fat from wheat. Most white flour is nearly fat free. Any whole wheat flour with a fat content higher than two percent should not be stored.) Any food that has any rancid odor should be discarded.

So what fats should we store? Flaxseed oil and safflower oil oxidize very rapidly and are not good candidates for storage. Most commonly purchased vegetable oils are extracted with heat, pressure, and chemical additives, which may accelerate oxidation.5 Cold pressed oils are better though more expensive. I know of no government source for the shelf life of cold pressed oils. Check any oil carefully for rancidity before using.

The modern diet is high in the consumption of Omega-6 essential fatty acids and low in Omega-3 fatty acids. Flesh from grain and corn fed animals and most vegetable oils are high in Omega-6. The National Institutes of Health urges nearly all people to reduce the consumption of the Omega-6 fatty acids and increase the consumption of Omega-3 believing that this is critical to achieving optimal brain and cardiovascular functions.6 Of the commonly used oils, canola oil and soybean oil contain Omega-3 fatty acids. Avocados and nutmeats, especially walnuts, are high in Omega-3.7

Andrew Weil in his excellent book, Eating Well for Optimum Health, promotes olive oil as a healthy substitute for vegetable oils. It has the highest percentage (77%) of monounsaturated fats of any of the oils but is low in Omega-3. There are many different varieties of olive oil available, each with a little different flavor. Choose what you like but watch it carefully for rancidity. Stored in the refrigerator or a cool basement, olive oil may turn cloudy-but the quality is unaffected.

Nutritionists advise us to reduce our intake of hydrogenated fats-margarine and shortening. Margarine is not a healthy substitute for butter.8 Hydrogenated means that hydrogen atoms have been added to stabilize the oil and turn it from a liquid at room temperature to a solid. A saturated fat is a fat that has been saturated with hydrogen atoms, is stable and less prone to oxidation but the molecular composition of saturated fats is believed to raise serum cholesterol levels.9

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Store oils and fats-they are essential to a well-prepared household and some fat is necessary to maintain health. However, choose the right fats and oils, store them properly, rotate religiously, and discard any that happen to get old.

Prepared by Dennis Weaver, January 15, 2003

Click here for the printable version of this article.

Learn more about food storage and emergency preparedness.

1Weil, Andrew, M.D., Eating Well for Optimum Health, The Essential Guide to Food, Diet, and Nutrition, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2000, p.89, and:Amendola, Joseph and Rees, Nicole, Understanding Baking: The Art and Science of Baking, Third Edition, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Hoboken, New Jersey, 2003, p. 84. 2Kansas State University, "Cupboard Storage Chart" www.oznet.ksu.edu/dp_fnut/hrap/storage, Sept. 9, 2002. 3Clemson University, http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets, Nov. 11, 2002.4Salsbury, Barbara G., Just in Case: A Manual for Home Preparedness, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, 1975, p. 158. This source states that oils can be kept for six to twelve months depending on storage conditions. The author believes this is accurate. 5Weil, Ibid., p. 91. In addition to accelerating oxidation, common extraction methods may create detrimental trans -fatty acids. 6Ibid., p. 88.7Ibid., p. 95.8Ibid., p. 93.9Amendola and Rees, Ibid., p. 83.

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