Basic Food Storage

FAMILY FORUM
 "Poor Boy" Survival Food Storage --Richard E. Oster, Sr.
   QUESTION: How can a person with limited resources store Survival food?
   ANSWER: You must first understand what destroys the nutritional value of 
food. A major problem is that of microorganisms (bacteria, mold and yeast). 
They require both heat and moisture to thrive. With high enough heat they 
can be destroyed and with low temperature they either go dormant or may be 
destroyed. Too much heat in storage will also destroy nutritional value. 
HINT: Food that is sealed in waterproof containers can benefit from burial 
in reasonably dry earth where temperatures are fairly low and constant. 
This also hides the food from predators (both human and animal).
          CAUTION
  Never store all of your food in one location. Make yourself a little 
"treasure map" and use several locations. Food can be a very big treasure 
in a disaster.
  Oxygen (about 20% of air) also destroys food (oxidation) as well as 
helping pests stay alive. Enzymes, found in all living matter, promote 
growth, but when we store food we want it to stop growing, so we must stop 
the enzyme action. The food we will demonstrate here already has the enzyme 
action stopped but if you were storing foraged food you could stop it by 
steam or boiling water blanch.
  Some ways you could store food include canning, freezing, freeze drying, 
brining and dehydrating. Our scheme includes using food that is already 
fairly dry, drying it a little more, getting all the air (oxygen) that we 
can out of the container and then sealing it tightly. The other schemes 
noted above require the use of a lot of "civilized" equipment which will 
not be available after a disaster. However, our scheme will work both 
before a disaster and after as well. Present day "long shelf life" storage 
food is "canned" after dehydration or freeze drying, by removing the air 
from the container and then inserting as inert gas (such as nitrogen or 
carbon dioxide . . . an inert gas is one that does not react with either 
the food or container).
  In a disaster you will most likely not have access to an inert gas. Our 
scheme uses hot air to dry the food, to pasteurize it and to help get the 
colder air out of the container. It is not as effective as the inert gas 
but I have been running a test program on certain foods, i.e. cooking and 
eating them after ten years with good results. I don't have the funds for 
periodic testing of the remaining nutritional content (the U.S. Govt. 
should do that) so I can not tell you what nutritional degradation takes 
place. The food tastes OK and causes no ill effects. I suggest that you eat 
from your stockpile in a rotational manner and keep adding to it. In this 
way your food will not have a high average life.
  The overall scheme to beat the poor supermarket packaging is to  use 
metal containers (store bags, sacks, and boxes let in moisture as well as 
pests). Good containers are the one, two and three-pound coffee cans and 
plastic lids. Don't forget the plastic lids . . . we will have a seal 
between them and the food but need them too.
  The size can you use depends upon the amount of food you have and the 
size of the group that will be eating from them. Once opened it is back to 
square one. Wash the cans and lids in boiling water and dry with a lint 
free cloth. Put the lids on the cans and store by nesting a one-pound can 
in a two-pound can and then these two in the three- pound can. This will 
keep all but the outside of can three clean.
 If you find dirt when you start to put the food in them then sterilize 
again. DO NOT TRY TO PROCESS TOO MUCH FOOD AT ONE TIME. You will get bored, 
tired and careless. You will need the following materials: 1. A heat source 
that you adjust to 175ų F. A home oven is fine. It can be downgraded to a 
COLEMAN type oven over a camp fire if need be. You may even have to build a 
makeshift one in the boonies (Hint: When you flee your house take the oven 
door with you. They are usually easily removable and it will help in 
building one). Be sure you have a portable oven thermometer in your bugout 
kit. They are available at most sporting goods and camping stores.
 2. A fairly large, shallow pan (one that will fit on the oven shelf)
 3. Aluminum foil
 4. Masking tape
 5. Coffee cans
 6. Scissors
 7. A felt tip pen
 8. Clean, lint free dish cloths
 9. Surgical type gloves if you want to be super clean (I don't use them)
 10. Hot pot holders
 11. Selected food and scoop
 12. Storage space (well below 80 degrees F if possible)
 Here is how I do it:
 1. Assemble the equipment. Check to see how much food will fit into which 
size coffee can. (see examples in table 1) and also how many cans plus tray 
and foil lids (more below) will fit into oven.
 2. Cut aluminum foil lids that are 2" greater in diameter than the plastic 
lids (allows 1" overlap of can sides). Table 1 shows some foods that I 
processed in May 1986. CAUTION: This is not a nutritionally balanced diet 
but shows how many calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat you can get for 
the listed cost, weight, storage volume etc. NOTE: All foods can not be 
processed by this method. All foods not processed by the manufacturer must 
be dehydrated by you (a separate process and story). This would be 
especially true if you foraged food in the boonies.
 3.Sterilize the shallow pan with boiling water, dry it and line it with 
aluminum foil (leave some hanging over the pan ends to aid in lifting.).
 4.Spread the food out in the pan (foil) so that it can all reach the 
desired temperature. Turn the oven on to BAKE and set at 175ų F. Place the 
pan, tray and aluminum foil lids on the oven shelves. Crack the oven door 
slightly to let any moisture escape. DO NOT PUT PLASTIC LIDS IN OVEN AS 
THEY WILL MELT.
 5.When the heat process is complete (all food reaching 175ų F for 15 min.) 
take the tray out of the oven and set it on solid surface. Take can from 
oven and place near pan. You could use a food scoop to lift the food out of 
the pan but I just pick up the foil at each end and let the center bend a 
little to make a funnel at the side. Pour the food into can until nearly 
full. The can will be too hot to hold so use pot holders. Shake and tap can 
so the food is packed down. Keep adding food (use scoop if necessary) until 
can is full plus a little and all possible air is out of can. If you spill 
a little it is just like loading gun powder. . . it is contaminated so let 
it go.
 6.Place can and contents back in the oven for 15 more minutes (this last 
heating is an effort to get the last possible bit of air out and pasteurize 
it one more time after handling). Quickly remove the can and place an 
aluminum lid on it. Fold the sides down, put the plastic lid on the can and 
seal the edges with masking tape. (When you pick up the foil lid try not to 
touch it with your fingers inside 3/4 from the edge so no hand 
contamination will touch the food).
7.Cut the nutrition info. from the food package (if store food) and attach 
it and any cooking in formation to one of the cans (use the food in this 
can last). 8.Place a piece of masking tape on top of the can and label the 
food type and date (don't mark on the plastic lid as you may need to reuse 
these lids).
   This food was purchased in Arlington, Texas in May 1986 for a total of 
$28.74 (see table 1). Storage space was one three-pound coffee can, eight 
two-pound coffee cans and seven one-pound coffee cans. This amount of food 
will provide about 1500 calories per person per day for about 45 days. 
(This is a low limit diet for the first week or two of a disaster and from 
2,000 to 3,000 is a more likely need after exiting a shelter). It has 
pretty good protein and carbohydrate content but very little fat (NOTE: 
Only animal protein - eggs, meat, milk, etc. -- contain all eight essential 
amino acids.) If the protein is to come from vegetable sources you must 
combine the correct vegetables to get all eight essential amino acids (See 
REFUGEE-U.S.A. -- Food). The fat problem reminds me of a story from the 
Yukon territory: when the old sourdoughs went into the wilderness for 
winter hunting/trapping they ate a lot of rabbits (snow hares). Now rabbits 
don't have much fat and only those sourdoughs which made special 
preparation get through winter. The secret was to take a barrel of 
doughnuts, which contained enough fat for the long winter!
   You can make some interesting mathematical manipulations with the data I 
have provided for you. If you are money, space and weight conscious you can 
find out what foods provide the most in calories, protein, carbohydrates 
and fat with the least volume, weight and cost but I will leave that 
exercise up to you. STORE SOME FOOD!