Mylar Food Storage for Absolute Beginners
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- čas přidán 4. 02. 2023
- Thinking about storing shelf-stable staples for long-term food storage but don't know where to begin? Follow along step-by-step as I demonstrate my method for sealing food in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers so that it lasts for up to 30 years! #mylar #longtermfoodstorage #preppingforbeginners
Wallaby mylar and oxygen absorbers I use: smile.amazon.com/dp/B08HVYCMG...
Buckets from Walmart: www.walmart.com/ip/United-Sol...
Lids from Walmart: www.walmart.com/ip/5-Gallon-B...
HELPFUL TIP: Before opening and placing your oxygen absorbers into the mylar bags, heat seal to close 3/4 of the opening of the bags. After that, place your oxygen absorbers and heat seal the rest of the opening. That way you won’t have to worry as much about getting them closed before the oxygen absorbers become duds.
Good tip!
That seems to be a really good tip to me, so thank you. I haven't done any of this before, and am trying to learn before I start it. I am reading and am watching videos on it. I have been a little bit concerned about getting things done fast enough to keep my oxygen absorbers in and things sealed, before the oxygen absorbers would go bad. I have health problems that have me so tired I can hardly function, and am not my usually pretty fast self at anything. I am feeling a real need to do this, feeling rather driven to, and so I am.
I use my vacuum sealer on the heat seal only.
I used to have that straightener in high school!!!!
Im gonna cry
Great video, I learned something new, and I really like your Mylar bag method. Thanks so much!
You are so welcome!
Great video, quick and to the point and didn't leave out necessary steps!
Glad it was helpful!
So appreciate this video. Thank you
Good stuff thank you for the crash course
Glad it was helpful!
Great video thanks 😊
Thanks for watching!
Great info thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
I appreciate the info and I like your OCD with your storage techniques.
Thank you! I know that I worry about all the little details and I thought going through everything very thoroughly might help someone else.
@@TheCrabappleCottage no I love that, it will be easy to access in a emergency situation.
Realy like your video and how throughly you explained everything you did. I'm not a fan of long cooking rice, so I have been putting up minute rice.
That's a great idea. I just purchased regular rice because it's so much cheaper than minute rice and I was putting up several hundred pounds.
Can you store minute rice in this same way for 20 years?
That's a good question that I don't really have an answer for. I suppose you could try it? Minute rice is basically cooked rice that has been dehydrated, so it seems like it would work.
My hubs loves rice pilaf from scratch. So I bought the large bottles of each of the spices and all ingredients. All set for a while.
I see alot of other videos where people vaccum out the air before the final seal ... do you think this is needed/helps?
What setting do you put the flat iron on? Is Medium hot ok?
Thank you for going thru your process and explaining the steps, I appreciate this. It's helping me hone in on my own process! Just wondering if you ever felt the need to lightly wash your mylar bags w a mild soap + some white vinegar type or something and let them completely air dry before use? Do you think it's necessary?
I suppose everyone's diff. I normally cleanse any Tupperware or dishware I get, even if slightly rinsing it w soapy water before using. But w all the creases and things w these mylar bags I just wondering what others might think to do or have done :) I'm using mylar bags to store rolled barley flakes and oats, for now. As opposed to the uncooked hard pasta, corn or rice type foods that may usually be store in bags like this... ?
Anywho, I searched around a bit and found out that the material used is PET plastic film, which is then covered with a very thin layer of aluminum, giving that shiny appearance. The aluminum-covered film is then laminated w another layer of plastic so that if certain foods are stored inside the bags, they don’t react with the aluminum coating. So it's determined to be food-safe by several organizations, including the FDA and European Food Safety Authority, and they wont react with food (assuming the food, whether cooked or uncooked, is at room temperature).
However, studies have shown that antimony, one of the chemicals used to create PET, can be released quicker when the plastic is heated. Which somewhat gives me a clue as to how I might cleanse or reuse these bags -- using cool soapy water. Antimony can be toxic in high doses, but as long as we don’t heat up Mylar bags - which is not what they are intended for - then we shouldn’t have to worry about them becoming 'toxic'. Just thought I'd share. Have a lovely weekend😊
Great video. Wish I could get those Wallaby kits here in Australia. Sadly I can not. :(
Thanks for watching! Sorry you can't get those kits. You could probably get the individual pieces from other manufacturers, however.
Could i put an oxygen absorber into a bag and leave it indefinitely? Or do you need to open the bags and change them out regularly? Or if im using a vaccum sealer, do i need the absorbers? Sorry im new
Thanks
Do you use any other pasta besides spaghetti??
How long does the food last for in these?
You got me with how the oats aren’t keeping in line with the 5# rule of an organized measurement. 😄🙌 I feel your pain & made notes.
Thank you. Thank you for calling wallaby to learn 1 oxygen absorber per bag & 2 if airy like rotini. I came on here to learn how many to use & circumstances and voila!
Great video. I took notes! 👍🙌🙏
So glad you found it helpful!
Thank you for the video. I have a couple questions. Can you store prepared pancake mix - Krusteaz from Costco and Idahoan potato flakes, stuffing mix, small boxes of long grain-wild rice mix They have an expiration date on the box and I would like to store it long term. Just not sure how you know if they can be stored long term or if the need an oxygen absorber Thank you
Hello, thanks for the comment. I don't believe that those types of items are good for long-term storage. Most of them have fats and oils in them that will go rancid over time. Those things are best stored in your rotating pantry, which you use on a regular basis. Potato flakes without added milk or butter flavorings might be okay for long-term. But I know that wild rice has oils in it and the pancake mix definitely has some sort of fat or oil in it.
I know you can make your own mixers using freeze dried products (butter, eggs, etc.)
I get my buckets from the local grocery store bakery section. They throw them away so are happy to give them for free.
That's a good place to find them if you can.
I get my buckets from the Sams Bakery. $2.99 with lid. You just have to wash them
How long will this last?
Hi, nice vid. What is the longest that you've been able to successfully store something, in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers? Thanks!
I've only been storing food this way for about 6 months so I haven't tested it, but everybody says certain types of food can last 20 to 30 years when stored this way.
@@TheCrabappleCottage Thx! I sure hope that they're right. I've only been dry-packing for just over 5 years now. I and a friend opened a few things the other day as part of my test program. I was very disappointed to note that a few things had a hint of staleness to them. And the OAs were all 'flat', as in dead it seemed.
I wondered if the heat seals on the mylar bags were bad, or the 5-mil bags were too thin, or if the oxygen absorbers had failed somehow.....
However, I taste-tested that same stuff the next day, and they tasted fresh to me. What the.....? The same thing happened a couple years ago when we tested a few items.
The items we opened up were mixed chocolate candies and a couple dry snacks.
BTW, mini-twist pretzels I have found to have never tasted stale when tested.
I just opened a 5lb bag of elbow noodles that i had stored for 12 yrs and they were as fresh as the day i packaged them
Please help. I need to put a monthly supply = 28 cups of small kibble dog food what size mylar bag should I use? We need to make sure her food does not turn rancid. Thank you so much.
Dog food has too much fat in it to be stored long term. You are better off purchasing in bulk and rotating through it as you use it.
How do you feel about the zip-lok style resealable Mylar bags?
You still have to deal with heat.
QUESTION!!What happens if my bag does not go air tight over night? Is that right? Someone said it should be tight. But I saw your lentils were not. I had oats and flour in my bags.
The oxygen absorbers just remove the oxygen, not the air. Since air is made up of lots of different gases in addition to oxygen, not all bags will become airtight. For example, air contains 78% nitrogen and just 21% oxygen.
Where do you find that big a bag of linto's I can't find them anywhere no store that I've gone to
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find big bags of lentils, so I purchased a ton of 1 lb bags.
So air doesn’t to be sucked out via some sort of vacuum for the storage to be effective?
No, the air doesn't need to be sucked out. Just try to push out as much as you can and the oxygen absorbers will do the rest. It's not the air that makes food go bad, it's the oxygen in the air.
@@TheCrabappleCottage thank you!! just bought some and will be doing this soon
I got a question. If you’re suppose to freeze your beans to kill the bugs and larva, once I pulled them out of the freezer they obviously will condensate, won’t that create bacteria? I sealed them up as is with the oxygen absorbers and just let them be freezing cold still, what do you recommend I do about this problem? I got rice I need to take out of the freezer next
You will probably find mixed reviews on this topic, but I understand that it is not wise to freeze items that you plan to put in mylar with oxygen absorbers unless you thoroughly dry them afterwards, perhaps with a dehydrator. You are right, the condensation will make them go bad. Personally, I do not freeze anything before I put it in mylar.
@@TheCrabappleCottage ok sounds good, I ended up drying out my beans for another day or two in my kitchen and made sure air blew over it to evaporate any moisture. The rice I’m letting sit for a week or more
No oxygen will kill the bugs
You can just put bay leaves to prevent bugs instead of freezing.
Do I put a oxygen absorbers in with flour?
It's not good to store flour long term. I would suggest storing wheat berries instead, flour only lasts a couple of years.
how hot does the hair straightner need to be to seal the mylar bags?
That's a good question. My hair straightener just has an on-off button and I can't control the temperature. I think any standard hair straightener would work.
I have read to use a metal hair straightener, not a ceramic one, but in all that I have read, and all the videos that I have watched, I have never seen it addressed, as to the temperature you should want it.
What is the difference/benefit to the 5 mil over others?
The thicker the mil, the the less likely the contents will puncture the bag. I don't know why I started with 5 mil but that's what I continue to use.
Is there some reason you should not use a food saver to seal the mylar bags?
I'm not sure. I don't have a food saver, but I know that the mylar needs heat to seal properly.
A food saver doesn’t get hot enough to seal a mylar bag
Ok so I started wrong I put my rice and sugar in a bucket without any of the bags you are talking about and I can't get the top off will it be ok am new to this
You can always repackage it in mylar at a later date, but the sooner the better. That's what I did. As for getting the lids off, I believe they make a special tool that you can use to lift off the lids. You can check on Amazon.
Augason Farms Bung Wrench Lid Lifter Tool a.co/d/8Go8bdd
@@TheCrabappleCottage Thank you I am just starting and it's fun to me and to see what I have now makes me happy and I had got a half of cow last month also
This is exactly me right now.😂
What size bag are you using?
1 gallon
How do you store spaghetti sauce for that same length of time?
I make my own from tomatoes I grow in my garden from seed. But you could use any sort of sauce, not just marinara sauce. You could use it with a basil pesto and oil, cheese-based, whatever works for you.
You should get powdered tomato and mylar a ton of italian.
Then you ca use that for sauce until you can grow your own tomatoes seasonings.
how long does this food last before going bad? You said only 2 of you. why so much food?
Yes, there are only two people in my immediate household, but I also prep for both of my parents, my brother, his wife, and their baby. They do not prep so I would also be helping to supply them.
How long will food last
Different foods have different shelf lives depending on the how they are stored and what the food is. Rice and beans should last 30 years.
Some things do not need Mylar. Salt and sugar are two of them. Those generally do not need oxygen absorbers either.
Nice video just a tad repetitive 👀
All that hoarding, just to have the government enact anti-hoarding laws that allow them to confiscate all that food from you.
The 5 lb. thing is a little OCD.