Bulk Food Storage 101: Using Plastic Buckets and Mylar
Photo; greggfetter.blogspot.com
New to prepping? Wondering how others use those large buckets and Mylar bags for food storage? Wonder no more. The mystery that is Mylar will be revealed in three easy phases.
Phase 1) Plastic buckets are generally used for bulk storage because they’re fairly rodent proof. They tend towards water impermeability, but they’re not always great at that. What they really do is keep the mice and rats out of your food. Important thing, right?
Phase 2) The second layer of the food storage is a plastic Mylar bag. Mylar evolved out of the NASA space program and is a really cool material which is used everywhere. It’s an interior layer of polyester and an exterior layer of evaporated aluminum that has the ability to keep all moisture out of the things you store inside it. It is not, however, strong enough to be used on its own – you need an exterior layer.
Phase 3) The third thing that goes into many Mylar bags is something to kill bugs. I use oxygen absorbers. You can purchase these purpose made, or you can simply buy off the shelf hand warmers at the end of the winter season. Either way, the iron filings/powder will reduce the amount of oxygen left in the bag after it is sealed, thus reducing the ability of vermin to live in your stored food. Alternately, you can look at a food grade diamatacious earth to add to the bag. This product gets into the shells of insects and sucks the moisture out of them, causing them to be incompatible with life; read as, not eating YOUR food. These should be used only in food stuffs that are biologically reactive; this means that if moisture gets into it, will it get wet & hard (like salt & sugar) or will it mildew? If it mildews, toss one of these puppies in there.
Instructions
Step 1– Get plastic buckets. I get mine free from my local grocery store bakery. These are food grade. However, when you are using Mylar, you have the choice to use other materials that are not, such as dry-wall buckets. Food grade plastic will not leach any chemicals into your stored food. Other buckets might. Use these at your own risk and with your own best judgement.
Step 2 – Purchase Mylar bags and insert into the bucket. Fill with what ever food product you are storing.
Step 3– Open O2 absorber and toss into bucket.
Step 4– Press all the air you can out of the top of the bag.
Step 5 – Have, on hand, a hot iron and a board. Flatten out bag at its seams and use iron to seal the bag. Mylar adheres to itself with heat, so just iron it shut and double-check that no air is able to get in and out – I do this by flattening the whole thing down as I fold the extra material into the bucket. If there is a little bubble of air pressing back at me, it’s a good seal. Alternately, you could pull the extra material up and see if it sucks air back down into the bag.
Step 6 – Put lid on bucket
Step 7 – Label and date so that you can rotate the stock.
Other handy tips: A bucket wrench is your friend when it comes to opening these puppies back up. Mine lives in my tool drawer. It cost about $5 at the hardware store. It looks like this:
If you choose not to use Mylar, sometimes you get moisture in a bucket. It will mildew and cause rot. It looks like this on rice. Use of Mylar will prevent this problem in most cases.
Happy food storage-ing!
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About the Author: Ann Weinstein
Re-enactor, canner, sci-fi geek, mom, she who loves car seats!Subscribe
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a good vacuum sealer is key too
A vacuum sealer is NOT key to using mylar bags for food storage! That’s a common misconception on the internet. If you’re using oxygen absorbers and sealing your bags you do NOT need a vacuum sealer.
See full explanation here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFfgVpDvQcY
Remember to put your dry food into mylar bags inside the buckets, but also to divide the food into usable sizes for your family. You don’t want to open a 10# bag of oatmeal and have to use it before it spoils or get’s moist. That’s a lot of oatmeal cookies, biscuits, etc!
These are all great tips! Thanks for commenting!
How long does this method keep your food from spoiling?
Depending on the food, between 5 and 20 years. White rice, for example, which is a long storage item, will store for up to 20 years. Flour, less time, due to going rancid. Eliminating or reducing the oxygen will help to increase storage time.
Plastic buckets are not rodent proof. If the rodents want in bad enough, they’ll chew through the buckets. I have heard from people many, many times that have said that they have gone to open a bucket and it’s been gnawed on to one extent or another. In more than one instance the rodent has gotten into the bucket. In some instances, the rodent has then gone one to chew to mylar bag. All a bucket (or other container) is for, is support for the mylar. Food grade or not the plastic bucket is not air or water proof.
As for leaching chemicals…. If you are using mylar in any container you will get NO leaching of any chemicals into the contents of the mylar bag. Mylar is a layer of plastic, a layer of metal, and a layer of plastic. This material protects against leaching from your outside storage choice. I use the 18 gallon or 20 gallon plastic totes for a lot of my food storage. More economical of space, easier to get into, cheaper to buy (they go on sale often) and you can fit more in them. I also store almost all my food storage in 1 gallon mylar instead of 5, because it’s a more manageable size to use completely before it goes bad.
For sealing, instead of the iron and board method, try a hair straightener. It is like a clam shell sealer in that it gets hot on both sides, and pinches together over the mylar. I’ve been using one for several years and it works EXTREMELY well.
You’re right, they’re not rodent proof. But they are fairly resistant. I’ve tried the other method, with the plastic totes, but I have a hard time lifting them – they’re just too big for me when filled with food. Also, I have only ever had a hard time with rodents with the bins, never the buckets – they can squeeze thru between the lid and the bin – I had them eat up an entire 20 gallon bin of merchandise once! OTOH, in the food storage area, I figure that’s what the cats are for, right? 🙂 I let them into the storage area often enough that they scare all but the most bold of rodents…
Hair straightener, you say? That’s a darn good idea! Thanks!
I like using the Mylar with buckets also. I purchased one bucket wrench and traced the pattern onto blocks of wood. I then cut them out with a saw and can have multiple wrenches tied to the handles of the buckets to use as needed. Trying to keep up with just one bung or bucket wrench would get old fast.
I too leave some extra room in my Mylar bags so I can reseal them as I use them. Anything we take with us camping or rafting is placed in sealed Mylar bags to protect items from the elements. Not bear proof, but flip your canoe one time without having a waterproof seal, and the fun outing becomes miserable quickly.