Here’s How to Buy Food in Bulk and Properly Store It – Emergency Preparedness

While buying “normal” sized foods from your local grocery store is a great idea and highly encouraged for food storage, I would also recommend buying certain items in bulk, breaking it down and storing it for long term for emergency purposes.

Certainly continue to buy “normal” sizes of bagged rice, canned beans, canned soups, canned chicken, etc. But buying in bulk is a great idea for the majority of food products as there’s some way to preserve it for long term food storage.

In fact, there’s really one thing that I wouldn’t recommend buying in bulk:

1. #10 cans of vegetables or fruits – Unless you plan to consume these foods within the week from when the can is opened, this can’t be recanned or preserved another way. Outside of freezing, that is. Of course, if you want to buy a #10 can of vegetables or fruits for your regular everyday meals, that’s great! However, once these cans are opened, they must be preserved through refrigeration or freezing.

Yep. That’s it.

Buying in bulk saves huge chunks of money for everyday and for emergency food storage purposes. I highly recommend it.

Here are some of the best foods to buy in bulk:

• Rice
• Beans
• Spices
• Meat/fish/chicken
• Cheese
• Flour
• Pasta
• Sugar
• Bread crumbs
• Peanut butter
• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Milk
• Eggs
• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• Wheat
• Protein powder
• Cereal
• Oats
• Coffee

You may be looking at this list and going, “Seriously? Fruit? Vegetables? Cheese? Milk? Those things go bad!”

That’s so true!

However, through the magic of preservation, we can store these items for long term.

I’m going to break it down into categories. Some of the above food items may be able to fit into a variety of the below categories which is great because then you have options about how you can preserve it!

Canning (pressure or water bath)

• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Meat/fish/chicken
• Beans

Mylar Bag With Oxygen Absorber

• Rice
• Flour
• Sugar
• (dry) beans
• Spices
• Pasta
• Bread crumbs
• Wheat
• Other baking goods such as baking soda, baking powder, etc.
• Protein powder
• Cereal
• Oats
• Coffee

Dehydrate (then place into a mylar bag with oxygen absorber or into a canning jar with oxygen absorber)

• Milk
• Cheese
• Eggs
• Vegetables (not all, but a good majority of them)
• Fruits (not all, but a good majority of them)
• Meat/fish/chicken

In addition to preserving these foods individually, you can put together dehydrated meals and then preserve those in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. There are so many great recipes you can make yourself by dehydrating everything yourself at home and making the meal yourself, including mac and cheese!

There’s also a canning process called ‘dry canning‘ which you may want to consider for things like crackers, grains, powdered milk, pasta, etc.

Did you know that you can also can water? Yep!

If you’re new to mylar bags, here’s a great video I did about preserving food in mylar bags:

The purpose here is to preserve food for long term storage without relying on refrigeration or freezer. For everyday, buying in bulk and preserving in the freezer is a great idea. If you have a generator or your house runs on solar or another alternative energy, you might be able to keep your fridge and freezer going even during a blackout.

But I would definitely suggest preserving food in a variety of ways.

One last tip:

When thinking about preserving your food, make sure you’re thinking about the size of your family. Maybe instead of storing an entire 5 pound bag of rice into one mylar bag, you could portion it out into individual servings that are perfect for the size of your household. This way, you’re not opening up an entire bag of rice for just a cup or two.

Once you open a mylar bag, the oxygen absorber is no longer effective and cannot be used again. Before sealing it back up, place a new oxygen absorber inside. Plus, you’d have to reseal it and maybe we wouldn’t have the options to reseal it. It just really depends on the circumstances.

My point is, it’s something to consider when it comes to food storage; storing in appropriate portion sizes.

And of course, always write on the outside of your mylar bag or can about what’s inside and the date it was packaged, as well as any relevant cooking instructions.

Ok, seriously, one last tip:

Get rid of any excess oil or fat from foods like cheese and meat before and after dehydrating. Oils and fats will decrease the shelf life of those foods. How much will it be decreased by? It really depends. I’ve had cheese preserved for a year before I decided to eat it and it was perfectly fine. Just depends.

Keep your foods in a cool, dry place and they should last a good long while. Take note of what it looks like, smells like and tastes like before sealing it up. This way you’ll know if it’s gone bad when you open it up to eat it later.

Don’t forget to seal mylar bags inside of a storage bin, 5 gallon bucket or other hard, locking container to keep it away from bugs and other critters.

Have fun buying in bulk and preserving!