[mmreed]

I cannot find a site that states the guidelines for how long a bag of dried beans and a pack of rice will store if sealed in an airtight container in a 70is temp room.

Any sites you can suggest on foods to store and how to actually seal them to extend life of storage?

Im new to all of this and the food part is what gives me trouble - im used to the 1stSg tossing out mres in my earlier life and pulling up to the drive through in current life. lol

 

[PuddleJumper]

From what I have read:

1+yr, if stored in original container in a cool dry place.
3-5 yrs, if vacuum packed and stored in a cool dry place.
20+ yrs, if packed in mylar with Oxy absorbers and stored cool and dry place.

I don't know how accurate this is on the last two numbers. The first one I know is accurate because I do this now.

 

[SgtBooker44]

Stored properly, 20+ years. They found wheat and honey in the pyraids still good to go.

 

[MikeK]

PuddleJumper is right. Stored in original wrap, or even in an airtight container, it's still exposed to air and only has a couple years of shelf life or so. Beans seem to last a little better than rice, just sitting on the shelf.

Vacuum packing is good for mid term storage, but isn't an ideal solution for long term.

Properly packed with O2 absorbers, you can get decades out of them. I'm eating some that were packed away in the '90s and stored in a hot shed. They lasted fine but would last even longer in a cooler environment. The beans are a little hard. Heat will do that.

 

[phblc0311]

X2, i have read 20-30 yrs if bags, buckets and o2 absorbers were used

 

[noahsark]

One note, most folks use mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.....If you want to forgo the mylar bags and just use 5 or 6 gal buckets...DO NOT drop in oxygen absorbers, the O2 packets actually have reverse effects if they are just used in the buckets...the buckets will create such an air tight seal, the oxygen that is left in the bucket will be trapped in the vacume.

noah