I have always taken food storage seriously, doing my best to preserve the quality of my stored food using a combination of good packaging and proper temperature control.  Over the years I have learned a few things. 

First of all, packing dried foods in huge, 5-gallon buckets or bags is a non-starter.  Second, storing food in a moderate climate such as Washington State is a whole lot different than storing food in super hot Arizona.  That means that if food is not carefully packaged, it will go bad rather quickly.  And by bad I mean inedible.

I have also learned over the years that practices for storing bulk foods vary widely, with some methods being both cumbersome and confusing.  After all, with only two hands and two arms, there is just so much juggling of potentially heavy bags, buckets, and beans that a person can do without struggling and making a big mess.  Been there, done that.

Today I am going to show you how I currently package bulk foods using dog food, a highly perishable item, as an example.

Is the outdated food in my cupboard safe to eat?  Do I really need to throw away food that is past it’s “best buy” date?  These are age-old questions that are further aggravated by the fact the most food pantries and food banks will not accept outdated canned and packaged goods. 

I first wrote about this dilemma back in 2015 (link below) and to the best of my knowledge, nothing much has changed.  I still stand by my premise that best-buy and sell-by dates are mostly a CYA imposed by food producers. 

There are some exceptions of course:  meats, deli products, certain dairy products, and tomato-based canned goods to name just a few.  I also know from personal experience that packaged dry goods such as cereals and crackers can easily become rancid and inedible over time.  All the more reason why proper food storage conditions and proper re-packaging are necessary if you want your food to be viable for years if not decades.

All of this and more is covered in my eBook, Prepper’s Guide to Food Storage which, for a limited time, you can get for free on Amazon.