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71K views 68 replies 47 participants last post by  Bluesky9 
#1 ·
How long will oats last for when stored in mylar bags with an oxygen absorber? I have some gallon mylar bags, I would like to fill them about half way with oats, seal, the fill the other half with oats.

These are the cans of rolled Quaker oats that you can get from the local china-mart. Open can, pour oats into mylar bags, insert oxygen absorber, seal, date and label bag, store in cool, dry, rodent free location.

Suggestions or other input?
 
#2 ·
I would be very interested in input on this also, we have lots of history of oats as a core staple on our wee isle up north where the men are blue and wear skirts, and the women are hairy and wear trousers.

Oats are an ideal food with loads of uses and are stupidly easy to prepare, better than wheat which can be awkward.
 
#4 ·
I'd like to suggest (from my vast experience of doing this for about 3 months now) that you cut your bag in half to start with, seal the bottom of the top half to make a second bag, and go from there. Less awkward to work with, for one thing. Also less weird shaped. :)
 
#9 ·
Thank you for the chart Bearack.

What I am thinking about doing, get some of those ziplock mylar bags in the gallon size, or half gallon size, seal them with an iron, and put several mylar bags into a 5 gallon bucket.

That way the "whole" bucket does not need to be opened. When you want the oats, open a single bag, and its resealable.

When I was sealing up my last batch of mylar bags, my wife asked about being able to reseal the bags after their opened - just to keep bugs, gnats,,,, an other stuff out of the bag. So I thought about ordering some of those ziplock bags, go ahead and seal them with an iron, and have the option to reseal them with the ziplock.

Looking at the prices, it seems that the mylar bags with the ziplock are only about 15 - 20 cents more then the ones without the extra ziplock.

Another idea I had was to buy some small mylar bags with the ziplock - something we could pour boiling water into and cook the oats inside the bag. This would be like 2 servings or single serving size bags.
 
#18 ·
Thanks. I was in the feed store yesterday and they had the whole oats but no oat groats. I purchased some oat groats last year at a health food store but they were expensive.

I did pick up a bag of feed corn. I opened it today. It looks better than the corn I purchased from a grist mill last year.
 
#17 ·
The wife eats oatmeal every morning made from quick rolled oats we put up in 98 and 99 in 6 gallon superpails. It takes her 6 months or more to rotate each superpail. She says she only uses about 1/4 cup per day.

Just roll the mylar back on to itself if it's only going to be open a short time (when you go to rotate).
 
#20 ·
Oats are so cheap, nutritional, and great tasting that I am storing up (about halfway there) a full year worth of breakfasts.

So first of all, I like having a full year of breakfast. But second, I am also saving up brown sugar, jam, and jelly for flavoring.

Third, it's cheap as hell. I paid around $2.50 yesterday for 30 servings of 150 calories, or roughly 2 days worth of calories. Once I find a place for the 50lb bags, I would expect to pay half that. A half cup is pretty filling. sweeteners are pretty cheap, and I would hope to have some fresh milk product to add at the time of preparation.

I worked the calcs out at one point and I figured I would spend less than $200 for a year of breakfast. Can't remember if that was for 2 people or not. Either way, super cheap and awesome.

And if you prefer instant oats to the whole grain oats, try adding some cream cheese to your oats, it makes a huge difference.
 
#29 ·
Oats are so cheap, nutritional, and great tasting that I am storing up (about halfway there) a full year worth of breakfasts.

So first of all, I like having a full year of breakfast. But second, I am also saving up brown sugar, jam, and jelly for flavoring.

Third, it's cheap as hell. I paid around $2.50 yesterday for 30 servings of 150 calories, or roughly 2 days worth of calories. Once I find a place for the 50lb bags, I would expect to pay half that. A half cup is pretty filling. sweeteners are pretty cheap, and I would hope to have some fresh milk product to add at the time of preparation.

I worked the calcs out at one point and I figured I would spend less than $200 for a year of breakfast. Can't remember if that was for 2 people or not. Either way, super cheap and awesome.

And if you prefer instant oats to the whole grain oats, try adding some cream cheese to your oats, it makes a huge difference.
Just a word on your brown sugar storage. It doesn't store well on it's own so I quit storing it by itself a while back. For my brown sugar I plan on using my white sugar storage along with the storage of unsulfured molasses.

Stored seperately you'll have a brown sugar supply for decades.
 
#21 ·
I had heard some where that rolled oats don't last as long as oat groats. Quick cooking rolled oats have been steamed and then dried then rolled. So they have already lost some of their goodness by this process.
But oat groats that you buy and roll yourself last 30 years or so becouse they have not been steamed. I recomend the family grain mill oat roller. when you roll your own oats and cook them they only take about 5 minutes longer to cook then instant oat meal.
And they are LOTS better for you!
Meredith
 
#24 ·
So this is no answer at all, as I don't know how long it will last. But I package mine in vacuume sealed 1 gal. bags. I then put those bags into Mylar with O2 asorber. Then the mylar bag into a 5 gal home depot bucket with another O2 asorber. Overkill maybe, but I'd rather error on the side of excessive. I do most of my stuff like that, beans, rice, etc..
 
#25 ·
Use Food Grade Buckets





Great storage procedure ...... never toooooooo much protection ..... but ..... the orange Home Depot "Homer" buckets are not food grade ..... eventually you will get air infiltration back into your food supply thru the bucket ...... thats when you could experience contamination from the reground/ recycle plastics ........
 
#31 ·
Oat groats are the oat seed after the chaff has been removed. They still have the bran on them. The bran has enzymes that will make them go rancid. Raw groats are steam treated to make the bran softer to cook quicker and to denature the enzymes for longer shelf life, these are called quick oats.
Rolled oats are groats that have been flattened, steamed and toasted.
Steel-cut oats are raw groats that have been chopped into pieces, take longer to cook (to soften the bran) and are chewier and nuttier. Since the enzymes have not been denatured, they have a shorter shelf life.
 
#34 ·
We go through about 8 pounds of oatmeal a month for two people with the 'heart healthy' serving side. Interesting idea storing the cinnamon and sugar with them. I do that separately. I also have bought dried apples from the LDS, because you can't always get fresh.

As to the recent earlier poster (this year vs years ago) I get my 5/6 gallon Mylar bags from Discount Mylar bags. His prices are good and he ships very quickly. The one gallon ones, I've gotten from the LDS, you can't beat them for price.
 
#35 ·
I figure my LTS is just that, long term storage. So when I get into the 5 gal buckets with 5 gal mylar, I will be using the food on at least a weekly basis, most bi-weekly and some everyday like oats, flour etc. I just pay the 6-7 dollars for the gamma lids for each storage item, flour, oats, elbow macaroni, etc to keep the 5 gals sealed until the next bucket is opened.

I have quick oats from Sam's in 1 gal mylar, stored in 5 gal buckets also. On Items that have directions or labels, I cut out the label/directions and put them in the bucket.

One thing I like to do is put the date I purchased it and for how much, I just thought it would be something interesting down the road.
 
#36 ·
I've been ordering the 50# bag from Honeyville. I can split the bag into two 5-gallon buckets with mylars. It was one of the first foods I tried when I kicked off my LTS effort.

Side note - the oats aren't that dense, so you won't get that super-sucked-down look when the o2 absorbers really kick in. You can get the bag to draw tighter by going a little overboard on the absorbers.
 
#37 ·
That super sucked down look is not desirable anyway. All it does is put the mylar under stress, making it more likely to get a pinhole or something. And adding absorbers won't help. They remove O2. Once there's no more O2, all the absorbers in the world aren't going to be more effective. If adding absorbers adds effectiveness, then you aren't using enough of them to start with. You shouldn't be able to notice any difference.
 
#41 ·
Bad Oats?

I bought a few 25 lb. bags of quick oats about 2 years ago. I divided them up into clean 2-liter plastic bottles (previously apple juice bottles) and added one 100cc oxygen absorber. I can tell the absorber is working because the bottles are slightly sucked in.
Now as I dip into my supply, I’m finding that the oats have a really bitter taste when cooked. So bitter I can barely stand to eat oatmeal with sugar added.
They smell normal, and I don’t see any signs of mold or bugs.
Does the bitterness mean they’ve gone rancid/bad, despite my efforts to store them properly? Help!
 
#42 ·
I bought a few 25 lb. bags of quick oats about 2 years ago. I divided them up into clean 2-liter plastic bottles (previously apple juice bottles) and added one 100cc oxygen absorber. I can tell the absorber is working because the bottles are slightly sucked in.
Now as I dip into my supply, I’m finding that the oats have a really bitter taste when cooked. So bitter I can barely stand to eat oatmeal with sugar added.
They smell normal, and I don’t see any signs of mold or bugs.
Does the bitterness mean they’ve gone rancid/bad, despite my efforts to store them properly? Help!
Yes, some of the fats have oxidized to create that bitter taste. Juice bottles are not gas tight, and oxygen will eventually pass through. A year is probably as much as you can expect from a PET juice bottle.
 
#44 ·
My understanding is that natural sunlight and maybe even artificial light to some extent can have an impact on the food storage process. The mylar bags not only provides an air tight seal with additional help from O2 absorbers, but they keep harmful sunlight out also. The scientific term for it is called photodegradation where light causes a chemical reaction in the food where it starts to break down fats, vitamins, minerals, etc... Hope this helps.
 
#46 ·
Remember, O2 absorbers don't absorb "air". They absorb O2, which is only 21% of the air. So there is going to be quite a bit of gasses left.

Poptart store best in O2 absorbers when removed from their packaging. Otherwise the O2 absorber really doesn't effect the gas inside their package. MREs lay the O2 absorber right on the Poptart then seal in mylar. Of course their Poptarts are designed for long term storage too, so I'm sure they outlast the factory varieties, even stored properly.

As for pancake mix, it's not really that great for storage. The baking powder in it will go dead, often puffing up the bag. It's plenty easy to make pancake batter from scratch. You can even store the ingredients separately for making baking powder. It's just baking soda, cream of tartar, and cornstarch (optional).
 
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