Oxygen is a highly reactive substance. It wants to interact with my way through comes in contact with. That's why it turns iron into rust. That's why bitten apples turn brown inside.
And it's why you must make sure stored meals are safe from it, or your food will ruin. This is a known problem with canned food, however affects all food you wish to store.
Air causes rancidity in fat, and allows bugs, fungi and aerobic bacteria to damage your food. Therefore, this is a problem for food rich in fat content such as powdered milk and eggs -- and even with regard to high fat grains such as rolled oats. split peas, nuts and brown grain.
If you buy food specifically for long term storage, from companies that specialize in el born area, it should arrive properly sealed, or you should demand a replacement or even your money back.
However, should you simply buy some bulk foods at your local health food store, you must do it yourself.
You can purchase oxygen absorber packets which draws the oxygen up and combines it into iron oxide (rust). This is not feasible for plastic containers. You need canning jars or Mylar bags.
Whenever you try to store meals for future use, you have to remember that a lot of animals want to eat your food. Rats and insects don't believe in food storage.
Do everything you are able to to make sure rodents cannot get into your food storage area. They can squeeze via just about any crack, which means you must seal all of them up good.
Exactly the same storage that protects food from oxygen should also protect it through insect infestation.
However, if you're buying meals that hasn't been cleaned and treated, there's a high possibility that some little creatures or their ova are already in there.
If you're able to freeze the food close to zero degree Fahrenheit for seven to ten days, that will kill any insects in the meals.
You can also use diatomaceous planet (DE) that is safe for human consumptions.
This can be a white powder from the skeletons of tiny marine animals which died, and accumulated over thousands of years. When you dust it gently over the food and insects eat it along with the food, the actual spiny skeletons tear up the insect's digestive tract.
However, these skeletons are too small to affect people, and contains no taste. Sprinkle about one-half to one cup of DE into a five-gallon container of any grain or seed and roll it around until all the food is covered.
This is safe for people, but it can irritate your lungs and eyes, so put on a face mask when you're sprinkling it around.
Another way to clear air from a food pot is putting in dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) and letting it escape, driving out the insects.
Be careful, though, as that is too cold to handle with bare hands. Always use thick mitts or tongs.
Richard Stooker includes a long-time interest in health, weight loss subjects, including children running shoes, and the Brooks running shoes.
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