I want to briefly outline for you the different types of food storage and make you aware of their pros and cons.The term “food storage” is used rather loosely in the emergency preparedness industry.Depending on who is sharing the information it can mean anything from a pail of beans to the canned food in your pantry

Food in your pantry
This is the starting point for your food storage. Depending on your family size, having enough food to last you at least two weeks in your pantry is one of the most cost effective ways to have food stored. I came from a large family, so we had a large room where we stored many weeks worth of food. It worked great for the family because my mom rarely had to run to the grocery store in a hurry. She would use our storage room as her grocery store and then restock that when she went shopping. I strongly recommend having a well stocked pantry with food that you are eating and will eat.

Here are a couple things to keep in mind:
* Make sure you buy food that you eat – Many times I see people buy a large quantity of canned foods in a case lot sale, its a great idea but do you really think you will enjoy eating 25 cans of baked bean & corn. Get food that you eat all the time & that it just wont sit in your pantry for decoration.
*Shelf Life- The best rule of thumb is that your canned food will last at least two years but I do know a lot of canned foods can last up to five years. If the canned food is past the expiration date, you should carefully inspect the food (the sniff test) and then make your best determination whether it is still safe to eat also for your foods that are high in acid content such as tomatoes and fruits will be closer to the 2 year range.

Once your pantry is stocked and you feel comfortable there, you need to consider more long term food storage products. These fall into three main categories:
1. Dry bulk food items
2. Dehydrated foods
3. Freeze-dried foods

Dry bulk food items
The items in this category include wheat, beans, rice, rolled oats, sugar and other staples. They are typically bulk packed in either cans or buckets. These items can be good to have around, but here are a few things to keep in mind:
* Preparation- With cooking the dry bulk items you will need to take 3 things into consideration.You will need wheat grinders, lots of fuel (to cook these items into something edible)and additional ingredients to make the food usable. It is difficult to turn these dry bulk food items items into something edible. If you are going to store food in this way, then you have to go all the way.Just the fuel alone will be difficult to store and in the quantities you will need. So just remember, you have to go all in with this approach or you won’t be able to use it when you need it.

* Shelf Life – With storing grains if stored properly you will store for many, many years (depending on the conditions you store the food at) you can get probably man decades out of the product.

*Taste & Nutrition – Typically with dealing with dry bulk storage foods you will get an excellent nutrition from the goods. As for taste, that depends on how good you can cook the goods, a pot of beans or oats without some basic ingredients added it will taste very bland & boring.

Dehydrated Food
This type of shelf stable food is processed using high heat. The high temperatures remove the moisture from the food which gives allows for the extended shelf life. The two things that really affect shelf life are moisture and oxygen. Here are few things to consider with dehydrated food:

* Shelf life – because of how the food is processed, the shelf life for most dehydrated items is 5-10 years. A few items might be a couple years longer and a few items might be a couple years shorter (such as dairy). So all that being said, dehydrated food is on the shorter end of the spectrum for long term shelf life.

*Taste & Nutrition – You will find with dehydrated food that it just won’t taste quite as good (sometimes it will taste awful!) and the food will look a little off. Because of how the food is processed using high heat, it actually damages the food and removes nutritional value as well as flavor.

*Preparation – with cooking dehydrated food it does require fuel & a stove and is easy prepare. It does take quite some time and for example, most dehydrated soup mixes ask for you to cook at a simmer from 25-30 minutes and over the time that it takes for you to cook the product it will use up a lot of fuel & in the case you don’t have power or if the gas is turned off it can cause problems with having heat for 25-30 minutes.

Freeze-dried food
Freeze-dried food uses a unique process to make the food shelf stable. Rather than using high heat, it uses low heat in a vacuum chamber to slowly remove the moisture from the food. Because of how it is processed, the food retains nearly 100% of the natural nutrients, enzymes and taste. Freeze-dried food is my choice for long term food storage because it is the best in all three categories. Here are a few things to consider with freeze-dried food:

*Shelf life – freeze-dried food will give you the longest shelf life. You will get at least 25 years and more than likely much longer. I have heard of 40 year old freeze-dried food being tested and it has lost very little taste or nutritional value.

* Taste and Nutrition – This is another outstanding quality of freeze-dried food. It tastes like fresh food. The entrees, fruits and vegetables taste fresh and not processed. The flavor isn’t muted or dull. It will also retain the same texture, color and look of the fresh food. Because it is processed in low heat, the food retains 99% of all the fresh vitamins, nutrients and enzymes of the fresh food. This food tastes so good that I eat it regularly for my lunches and I know many other people that do the same.

*Preparations – This food is very simple and easy and that’s why I enjoy it, the preparation is simple all you have to do is add hot water, stir and wait about 5 minutes and you have a meal. Because you only have to heat up water & it does not take a large amount of fuel it will keep your costs very low & you will not have to spend your valuable time cooking the food.

Remember with food storage that the most important thing is to start. But, I want to make sure you are spending your hard earned money on a product that you will use and will last.

[spin]For handy recommendations about addsense – give a look to this webpage.