How do you properly store sugar?

[Mike]

I am about to start buying alot of sugar. White sugar, brown sugar, and I'm not sure buy maybe powdered sugar. What is the best way that I can store it?

So far I have been putting my dried foods in 5 gallon buckets w/mylar bags and o2 absorbers, but i think I've read somewhere or heard that your not supposed to seal sugar in anything because it will clump together or get hard. I really have no idea what to do.

[DarknessFalls]

crap- thats what I did with my sugar(food grade buckets/ o2 absorbers/ sealed mylar liner). I guess I could always break it apart with a mallet or something. Hopefully we never need it. I am eager to know what is the proper way to store it.

[Hells Toy Master]

Originally Posted by Mike

I am about to start buying alot of sugar. White sugar, brown sugar, and I'm not sure buy maybe powdered sugar. What is the best way that I can store it?

So far I have been putting my dried foods in 5 gallon buckets w/mylar bags and o2 absorbers, but i think I've read somewhere or heard that your not supposed to seal sugar in anything because it will clump together or get hard. I really have no idea what to do.

LoL, My family had some old preps and in them was a plastic 5 gallon bucket full of sugar... still in its original bag.... the preps were 20 years old. ( no mylar, no plastic liners, no O2 absorbers, I dont even think its a food grade bucket... )

It was hard and lumpy and you had to use a butter knife or ice pick to break it up but other than that it was just fine... we used all 5 gallons up starting in October and ending a few weeks ago.

use a mortar and pedestal or other means to grind it up and we could not tell the difference by look or by taste between new sugar and the 20 year old stuff.

this was plain old white sugar, the rest I dont know.

*Edit*

20 years ago my family was active members of the Mormon church, thats why we have the preps from back then.

[DetroitMarauder]

I've read on here to use the mylar but not the O2 absorbers with salt and sugar. I hope that's right because I bagged some sugar that way.

[scubasteve]

According to "Making the Best of Basics" -- Store sugar in sealed foodsafe containers. Shelf life is indefinite.

If you can keep the bugs/ants and moisture out, you should be good to go. If storing in a 5 gallon container, you might want to bag (foodsealer/mylar) things into smaller packs.

Washed soda bottles would do the trick too.

No O2 absorbers necessary. Just keep the moisture and bugs (ants) out.

DetroitMarauder: The above also applies to salt.

[MikeK]

Just keep it dry. O2 absorbers make it turn hard like a rock, plus O2 isn't the enemy of sugar anyway. As long as it's kept dry (and free of bugs) it'll last pretty much forever.

[sandline]

We have sugar that's from the mid-1970's that was put into #10 cans and sealed with a snap-type plastic lid with masking tape around it. A friend gave about a dozen of those to us and we use it once in a while (we're not big sugar eaters). It gets pretty solid and needs to be broken into chunks which can then be rubbed back and forth in a metal screen-type strainer to separate into grains again.

The stuff's as good as any sugar we have used, and if the makeshift seal it was put under worked that well you should be just fine with plastic buckets with nothing else.

[home in oz]

I leave it in the sack.

Put it in my storage cupboard where it is nice and dry.

[kmech]

About 10 years ago I had an ant problem at a different house. I ended up putting my sugar (all types---regular, powdered, brown) in canning jars, and I vac packed them with my food saver attachment. Been going thru them lately. The granulated sugar I had to jab with a butter knife to get moving, but it was fine after that. The brown sugar was as soft as the day I put it in the jar. Haven't got into the powdered yet

[kmech]

Originally Posted by home in oz

I leave it in the sack.

Put it in my storage cupboard where it is nice and dry.

Uhhh, yeah.......about that, I used to do the same, see above post. The critters will find it... guaranteed!

[kturnerga]

What about freezing a few 5lb bags of sugar? Then when the juice goes out for good you can pull it out of the freezer. It would have to be vacusealed but it should still keep for a few years, shouldn't it?

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by kturnerga

What about freezing a few 5lb bags of sugar? Then when the juice goes out for good you can pull it out of the freezer. It would have to be vacusealed but it should still keep for a few years, shouldn't it?

What purpose would the freezing serve? Sugar doesn't spoil or rot. It just needs to be kept dry is all. Well, that and keep the bugs away. But sealed up, they can't get in anyway.

[Jaiyun]

So no to the O2 absorbers but what about desiccants? They absorb the moisture. I haven't got to salt or sugar yet so this is good. Am hoping I'll be able to use honey from my hives for most sweetening.

[Kipper]

I store sugar in original 2kg paper bags, inside airtight (and therefore ant tight) plastic containers.

I dont know about 20 years, but some of its is 5 years old, and still fine.

[TxHills]

I have sugar and salt in buckets. No mylar or o2. Just an air tight seal of the lid. Since I just started doing this last year.....if we're all are still here in 20 years, I'll open one and tell you what I find.

[charlieb]

Vacuum seal if possible. --it keeps out moisture, bugs and any possible micros.

[stephpd]

Most of the recommendations for no O2 absorbers are for white sugar. I'd think brown sugar would turn to a brick anyway. It use to be refined white sugar and molasses but I think much of it's corn syrup now, but I could be wrong. I can't find unrefined naturally brown sugar.

Most of what I'm packing is refined white sugar. It's still fairly cheap, though the price has gone up this year. I just put it in Mylar bags in HDPE buckets and seal. I try and do this during relatively dry periods. Being hygroscopic, both sugar and salt will pull moisture out of the air. If I am packing it during high humidity I run the dehumidifier until the air in the room is very dry with the sugar and salt being in that room for a few days.

Since we want to keep it dry desiccant won't hurt, probably help, but not really needed.

I prefer Mylar over vacuum bags due to them having better vapor barriers properties.

[vhbrown2]

...my .02 worth

I vacuum seal the sugar in it's original packaging <<more to kill any bugs that may have hitched a ride in the paper bag than anything else>>. Then, if it's going on the "back shelf" for later, I'll put it in a mylar bag...no absorbers or dessicants.

[Ghostrider]

Keep in mind that salt and sugar are preservatives in and of themselves, so in their natural state will last indefinitely.

Just seal them in mylar (protection from moisture) and then put the mylar in a plastic bucket w/ lid. The bucket keeps the bag from getting punctured and keeps the critters out.

[Germantown Shelli]

I purchase sugar in the dead of winter and let it sit in the freezing garage (to kill any bugs or whatnot) a day or two and then break down the 25 lb bag and separate them into manageable ziploc freezer bags and put into the food grade buckets. Haven't ahd a lick of problems in (only) 2 1/2 years.