![]() You are also correct about freezing grain products to kill any bugs. The tank is easier to keep on hand than chunks of dry ice. Instead of dry ice, we use nitrogen from a tank that we got from the local welding supply place. I also use the pantry buckets completely empty and clean them out, to avoid contaminating the new food. One bucket per item with a gamma lid is designated for pantry and is filled from “factory sealed” buckets or containers. So far, no bugs, and rotation helps with no spoilage (fingers crossed.) Reply This should be sufficient to kill any living organism, (including the grains, so don’t do this for seeds or those planned to sprout.) Then I use dry ice for belt and suspenders long term packing & storage. Every time I pack a bucket, I put it in the freezer for 2-3 days. I have it set to max, about -10 degrees F. I have a small chest freezer that I appropriated to my shop. Then, even after proper packing, if enough oxygen is around, the bugs hatch and bingo, spoiled supplies. As to bugs, I have no first hand proof, but I have read that especially in grains and beans, the bugs are in the food themselves as eggs or larvae, sometimes INSIDE the actual grains, so they can be difficult or impossible to detect. When that bucket is empty, I transfer a new bucket’s contents to that one. The difference is I only use gamma seals on ONE bucket, the one I use to refill my pantry containers. We’ve already opened buckets of wheat that were 15+ years old, without mylar bags, and have had no issues – however I understand that is just a personal experience. We do it both ways, with and without the mylar bags. The alternative is two high or on shelves.įinally, if you want extra assurance, you could use a 5-6 gallon mylar bag in your bucket. The solution here is to place boards between rows to distribute the weight onto the edges of the lids below which presses them down against the seal making it even tighter. The weight in the center of the lids can put stress on the gaskets and break the seal. When storing them, it is important that you don’t stack them more than two high. Naturally it is critical to ensure the lids are nice and snug. This will ensure the longevity of the gasket as well as help form that initial seal. We also like to use a bit of food grade silicone lubricant on the gaskets, particularly the one that is in the outer ring. For beans we double the amount of absorbers due to the extra airspace. We start with 500cc on the bottom, fill the bucket a third of the way and add another 500cc, then fill it two thirds of the way before adding another 500cc, then filling the bucket leaving approximately 1″ of headspace and adding the final 500cc. When storing wheat, for example, we use roughly 2000cc distributed throughout the bucket. Otherwise, you will have left enough oxygen in that bucket for insects to do their damage. If you plan on storing “long term” in 5 gallon buckets, you certainly can use gamma lids however you must use an adequate supply of oxygen absorbers – just as you would with mylar bags. How about you? Do you have this trouble with food in buckets or do you use it fast enough? If, however, you use your bulk foods regularly then the gamma seal lids and buckets work great. ![]() ![]() Sure, we get into these foods on occasion but I don’t think I’ve had to add any rice or oats or beans to any of these buckets in years which is a clear sign we’re not using our bulk foods very much anymore.įortunately, we haven’t had any food spoil for any reason other than bugs–such as the rice going rancid–but I think I’m just going to store enough of these bulk foods in #10 cans since I have plenty of those. You simply can’t let food sit opened (even though it’s in a “sealed” bucket) for years and that’s by and large what we’ve been doing. I know this is just the way it is when it comes to using bulk foods but since it’s not SHTF and my family wouldn’t think of eating bugs unless they have to, the last bit of rice I had in my bucket got tossed… which brings me to the problem: Well, remember when I had the trouble with bugs in my oats? I had it happen yet again, this time with my brown rice. In fact, they’re rather easy to use and make accessing my food storage buckets convenient. But, alas, I’m not going to be using them any longer. We’ve used them to store rice, beans, oats, and wheat. I’ve used these gamma seal lids and food grade buckets for years now without trouble.
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