... by Pam Paizs, owner of Happy Hovel Storable Foods
There are very good reasons that grains, beans and other food items for long term storage are packed using Nitrogen or Oxygen Absorber packets. The three biggest enemies you should be aware of when storing your grains and legumes are heat, light and oxygen. Foods packed in air without the benefit of nitrogen or an oxygen absorber will oxidize many of the compounds found in the food, thereby spoiling all the contents of your buckets. Several agents which make food go rancid also need oxygen to grow, not to forget with the displacement of oxygen no bugs can survive!
Foods packed in natural air also do not store as long as those packed in an oxygen free environment. If you have purchased your grains and beans from the local farmer, the grains may have unfriendly bacteria and be just too moist for long term storage, not an ideal situation. There is nothing worse than opening a home packed bucket to find a nasty black mass of mould that now must be disposed and buried deep so as to not be a contaminate.
Most seed saving agencies use liquid Nitrogen to store seeds for the future so your wheats and legumes will benefit by a better growth in nitrogen especially if you plan on sprouting, or growing your own crop in an uncertain future.
How You Can Displace Oxygen To Store Your Foods
Nitrogen is usually used because it is the most inert gas known; as much as we use it in our products it is difficult to amass all the equipment needed to do this procedure correctly. Therefore we advise folks who want to do their own packaging that it is cheaper, easier and quicker to use the oxygen absorber packets.
We do recommend you begin with a good food storage bucket, which has an excellent seal and is a safer plastic product for food storage. Pour into your food storage buckets the dry wheats and beans, place one oxy absorber in the foods and quickly seal the bucket tight. As the absorber packet goes to work it quickly displaces all the oxygen between each grain, you may notice that the bucket will look “caved in” after a while, this is the displacement of oxygen happening.
However, one thing to be aware of is that once you open the package that contains the oxygen absorbers, they will begin to absorb the ambient oxygen in the air. We suggest you be prepared with all your buckets filled with grains etc., so you can quickly place an absorber in each one and have a friend or family member close the lids tight behind you prior to opening the package.
Do It With Dry Goods Too!
Using an oxygen absorber with dry goods is also a great idea. You can store dry goods from your local market, such as potato flakes, dry milk, pasta, all sorts of goodies. Just remember to remove the boxes and only place the product into a food storage bucket with 1 oxygen absorber packet, seal and you are set!
Happy Packing from Happy Hovel Storable Foods!
© 2008, Pam Paizs
Listen to Pam's Beyond the Ordinary KRSE Archived Radio Programs
Pam Paizs, once the CEO of Australia's then largest Food Corporation, set up the research and development for "shelf stable" foods for the consumer market. Now owner of Happy Hovel Storable Foods in Yelm WA, Pam shares with you her knowledge of storing foods safely, taking the mystery out of purchasing and keeping foods for short and long-term purposes.
