PRESERVING FOOD A Guide Prepared by the Syracuse Emergency Preparedness Committee There are many reasons why you should start preserving and storing extra food. It allows you to save money as you can take advantage of in-season prices. It allows you to continue eating whole food without additives in the off-season. And of course, it is vital to preparing for emergencies. Preserving food is simply extending the amount of time that you can store it without it spoiling. In that sense, most of us already preserve food regularly in our freezers! So why don t we learn other methods? After all, our freezers are only so big and some other methods of food preservation don t require special housing just any storage space will do, like shelves and cupboards. So why do we freeze food but not do use other preservation methods? Probably it s simply because we already know exactly how to do it. Since we were young, we were programmed to put food in the fridge or freezer so it doesn t spoil. Also, it tends to be quicker than the other methods in the short-term. So we already know how to do it but in reality the other methods, once learned, are just as easy and have fewer restrictions. It s helpful to think of food preservation strategy the same as sound financial advice. You have less risk when you diversify. Knowing and doing multiple methods of food storage is key to properly preparing yourself and your family for any disaster. This page is meant to equip you with the resources to achieve high competency in multiple methods of food preservation.
Storing Dry Goods & Water Since this is all under the banner of disaster preparedness, we should start with the fundamentals. Set aside a place in your house for emergency food storage. If you have a room set aside already for this purpose, great! If not, closet shelves or in totes underneath your bed work well. Avoid storage in your attic or garage as hot summer temperatures could affect things negatively. Water Storage Start by having a week s worth of water in storage and over time, as space allows, try to build up to a 4 to 6 week supply. Food Rotation Get into a habit of rotating your dry goods from food storage. Have a number of foods like beans and rice in food storage, and when you run out of these goods in your pantry, replenish them from your food stores and replenish your food stores when you do your grocery run. A good idea is to develop a min/max system for food storage, where you keep a minimum amount of all your dry goods like beans and rice on hand and when your stockpile dips below the minimum amount, you replenish it to the maximum amount on your next grocery run. For ultra long-term storage, mylar bags with oxygen absorbers for beans, rice, powdered milk can last 20 years! Buying Long-Term Storage Ingredients Several companies have prepackaged food engineered for long-term storage and stores like WinCo in Clinton have is a fantastic selection. Some of it is even showing up in Walmart. Additional Tips Of course, if you ever did find yourself in a disaster, having some simple recipes to create with your dry goods would be a good idea. And of course, don t forget to store salt as well, to season your food.
Pros/Cons There is an initial investment of capital to get involved with long-term food storage and it does require some space in your home, but being ready for emergencies and the peace of mind that it can bring can be worth its weight in gold.
Freezing Freezing your food stops your food from spoiling because the low temperature makes it difficult or impossible for bad microorganisms to grow. For best results, food needs to be frozen to -6 F or less, though a standard refrigerator typically doesn t get near that cold. Obviously most people already freeze their food, but here are two ways you can step up your game Buy a Deep Freezer The main drawback to freezing food is that you only have so much space in your freezer. You can, however, mitigate this by simply buying more freezer space. Dedicated deep-freezer units are cheaper than refrigerators and offer much more space as well. Freezer Meals Over the last 10-15 years, freezer meals have become incredibly popular especially as a time-saver. The idea of cook once a week is a big hit with busy households. However, in a disaster, when you might have bigger problems to deal with, having ready made freezer meals allows you to focus energy that you might have used preparing a meal on other things that you need to get done. Plus, the visual of a deep-freeze stocked with freezer meals can breed more confidence than raw ingredients. Taste of home has a curated collection of 150 freezer meal recipes for you to try. Pros/Cons Freezing is great because there is the least amount of prep involved. But, as we already mentioned, freezing food is limited by your freezer space AND it requires working power, which can sometimes be a problem in a particular disaster especially a natural disaster. Because of this, we recommend everyone learn at least one other method and use it regularly to diversify this risk.
Root Cellar Many of us had one of these growing up, especially if you lived on a farm, but you don t see them as much these days. Root cellars are underground structures that maintain cool and humid conditions ideal for holding foods for months after harvesting. They can be used with many foods, especially vegetables, grains, and nuts, as well as fermented foods and dry-cured meats. There are many different methods for cellaring food, all of which are relatively easy to do. No matter where you live, whether in an apartment or on a farm, you can use the concept of cellaring to some degree. Things don t last forever, but they survive a power-outage and don t get freezer-burn! GrowAGoodLife.com has some great articles about properly storing food in a root cellar https://growagoodlife.com/storing-potatoes/ https://growagoodlife.com/winter-food-storage/ Pros/Cons The main advantages to a root cellar is that once you have one, it doesn t take anything to maintain it, the food doesn t take much to prep, and it can survive power outages. On the downside, this is not a multi-year storage method and not all food will work. However, you should expect to see your potatoes and other root vegetables last 6 months easily if done correctly.
Drying So far we don t have to prep too much to do our food storage, but now that we re moving away from cold, easier to store foods, we need to up our game. The idea behind dehydrating foods is there is not enough moisture to support microbial activity. It can be used with most foods, fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, grains, legumes, and nuts. There are several different techniques, and some are relatively easy to do and require no special equipment. Oven It s remarkably easy to dehydrate fruits and veggies in the oven. Just turn it to the lowest setting, cut your fruit and veg into ¼ inch slices, and put them in the oven on a lined sheet pan for as long as they need, usually 6 to 8 hours. Food Dehydrator Food dehydrators can take some of the guesswork out of dehydrating food. You can set specific heat and dry times and just set it and forget it. Also, they can tend to hold more food than your oven with their multiple racks. A good, inexpensive food dehydrator is the Nesco Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator while the Excalibur 9-Tray Electric Food Dehydrator is an excellent unit that will cost a few hundred dollars. Smoking If you don t have a dehydrator, smoking your food can achieve the same effect while also imparting delicious flavor to things like meat. Also, smoked meats are less likely to turn rancid or grow mold than unsmoked meats. Any smoker will do, but be sure to follow good directions to properly dehydrate your food in a smoker. Vacuum Sealing If you want to extend the life of your dried food even further, you might want to consider vacuum sealing as well. This removes
oxygen from the food, which makes it even harder for bacteria to grow. This NutriChef vacuum sealer does a great job while this PDR Tec model will save you some bucks. Pros/Cons The major advantage to drying is the long shelf-life. When done properly, dried foods can be good for 5-10 years, which is even better than canning which is good up to 5 years. However, you may need some special equipment and it can take a while to dry large amounts of food for storage.
Canning The idea behind canning is that you heat the product at a certain temperature for a certain time (pasteurizing), and then vacuum seal the pasteurized food in special glass jars designed for this purpose. It can be used with most foods, as fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, and some prepared foods. Canning requires just reusable canning jars and rings, one-time use sealing lids, and some practice to learn the necessary and detailed steps. To get started, visit Ball s canning website. This company makes the jars that everyone tends to use, and they have detailed instructions for the different methods of canning and tons of great recipes. This site is the only resource you really need, but there are thousands of others online. Water Bath Canning Water bath canning is good for high-acid foods. Fruits, fruit juices, jams, jellies and other fruit spreads, salsas, most tomatoes, pickles, relishes, chutneys, sauces, vinegars and condiments are among items safely preserved using the water bath canning method. This method requires no special equipment just a large, deep pot on your stove. Pressure Canning Canning low-acid foods like meats, poultry, seafood and most vegetables (except tomatoes) require special attention. While you don t need any special equipment for water bath canning, you do for pressure canning. You will need a pressure canner like this 23 quart model. Additional Equipment In addition to the jars (they are available at Walmart and most grocery stores), there are some other pieces of equipment that might be useful to you, like this funnel that makes pouring into the jars easier, this tool that removes bubbles, and this jar lifter for removing jars from the water bath.
Pros/Cons Canning offers great shelf-life of up to 5 years, meaning you don t have to replenish your food storage as often. It is a precise technique, however, so there is a larger learning curve here.
Conclusion Again, this is about diversifying your efforts. If anything, even if there is a method above that you don t end up using regularly, it s a good idea to try them all out so that you familiarize yourself with their concepts. The content in this guide is available, with links to the various equipment and resources mentioned at https:// syracuseprepares.com/preserving-food/.