Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

Working up to a year's worth of food storage. We are going to eat what we store and rotate new supplies in, so my expectation is that everything we buy & store will be eaten within 6-12 months.

Since that's the situation, are there any good reasons I couldn't store the food (wheat berries, rice, oats, white flour, etc.) directly in 5-gallon buckets? I'm talking no o2 absorbers, no mylar bags, no anything...just straight in the buckets. That's what I'm leaning towards doing.

I figure, all of the stuff I mentioned above will easily last 12 months without any special preparations to it. So I see no point in going the o2 absorbers & mylar route.

Is there something I'm overlooking?

Re: Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

We have done that but used Nitrogen and a small candle to get the air/ Oxygen out.

The candle sits upon the food that your storing, The nozzle of the Nitrogen is inserted into the food all the way to the base of the bucket, the candle is lit and the valve on the Nitrogen tank is very slowly cracked open, once the candle is extinguished you know the nitrogen has displaced the AIR/ Oxygen from the bucket you give it another minute of so to get to the top of the bucket and then remove the nozzle from the bucket and seal the lid.

Re: Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

So, is the point of doing that to get the oxygen out to prolong the food's life? And would that really make a difference if we're just going to eat it all within 6-12 months?

The other consideration is, practically speaking, I might be opening that bucket once every week or two to get more rice, wheat, beans, whatever out. So would I push the oxygen out everytime then? Seems like overkill to me.

Re: Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

Of what nature? Bugs & rodents?

Re: Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

Yes it was to prolong the freshness of the food.
We did it for everything no matter the time we expected to consume the food by as if we didn't actually eat the food by a certain time it was good to go for the long haul. The main reason for using the Nitrogen was we were packing about 100 buckets and before we were done ran out of the Mylar liners and this was a quick fix rather than waiting to get more liners and have open 50 lb bags of food waiting for the liners to be shipped we used the Nitrogen and candles.

If your sure your going to use the food within a reasonable amount of time then you should be good to go.

If you are going to access it every so often I would use the descant and oxygen absorbers, This would help keep it fresh since every time you open the bucket you are letting in more air.

Re: Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

If you're going to be opening it every week, you probably don't need the big buckets anyway. How about just using a bunch of canning jars? You might want to still throw oxygen absorbers in the ones you won't be opening for 6 months or more.

Those buckets aren't the easiest things to open! It might be easier to open without oxygen absorbers sucking the lids down, but half the time I manage to damage, if not outright destroy, the lids just getting the darn things open. You might do better with individual jars rather than a bucket you keep opening and closing.

Re: Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

Similar situation, here.

I have a dozen pails of rice, 25 lbs each. I'm thinking a reasonable solution is to rotate stock, and keep the pail currently being used on top in the front, and put the replacement pail at the back after its emptied and refilled. I'm taking about 8 lbs of rice out at a time, so I guess I'll open it 3 times before its empty.

I don't see it as important to store food for 30 years. It just needs to last as long as it will take to eat it, and if it wasn't something we'd eat in the next 2 or 3 years, I didn't buy it. It means I need to adjust my normal menus to use things like dried beans instead of canned, but I don't see that as a big problem. Making chili for the first time from jerky was an adventure, lol.

And boy are the replacement foods costing more than what I paid when i stocked up. My 25 lb bag of jasmine rice has gone from $11 to $22, now. Similar increases on beans, too.

Re: Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

Mice can smell food through plastic buckets and will chew through the plastic to get it. They can't smell through food grade mylar bags. As for five gallon buckets, you would want to divide the food into smaller portions for convenience.

Re: Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

What you are proposing will work just fine. There might be minor degrading , but not much. If a bucket of wheat is put in a cool basement it will be fine for 3-5 years and maybe even longer. By using the mylar bag, nitrogen, CO2 or O2 absorbers you can extend that life out to 30 years(or longer!!). But if you are going to rotate every year you will be fine.

Maybe you should do a combination. Some for constant use, maybe transfering to jars after you open a bucket. Some for longer term storage for hard times. I personally rotate certain things out to food pantries after 5 years (pinto beans) since beans won't last as long as wheat.

sb

Re: Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

While I haven't worked up to pails and buckets yet I don't see any good reason to scimp on storage. What do the mylar bags and O2 absorbers cost relative to the food itself? An extra 10% maybe?

I don't know what will happen to my stored food over the course of the time it's stored
so I want to do everything possible to make sure it will be fresh when I do open it. So I'm not going to scimp on how I store them.

BUT, doing something is FAR better than doing nothing, so I applaud your foresight.

:applause_

Re: Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

If you will truly use it up in a year, with weekly dipping into them, you might be okay.

Re: Storing food "naked" in 5-gallon buckets: bad idea?
 

Here is a recently thought of idea I read about on another preparedness board.

If one plans to dip into the food every once in a while The 1 Gallon Steel Paint Cans that do not have any coating on the inside beyond the TIN coating would be ideal as they are a larger size than the Ball / Mason jars and are just as resealable as the Ball jars and also not as prone to damage as the Ball jars are.

And a lot easier to open and close than the 5 gallon plastic buckets.


Paint Cans
http://www.bestcontainers.com/paint-cans.html

I remember seeing this over on http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/ But neglected to book mark the page and at the moment cannot find it.