The ads for long term stored foods are everywhere, and honestly if you’re aware of the current state of our economy and food supply lines, you know why those ads have increased. But many individuals after seeing the expensive prices of the professionally dried foods have planned to stockpile groceries they get from the store, but some foods just don’t last long, and you will waste your money.
While you can attempt to store these foods long term, it will go rancid, the flavor will decrease, or the nutrient content will be drastically reduced. You can extend foods through freezing, only so far.
Nuts – Not only does the flavor decrease but they will become rancid if kept for too long on a shelf. You can typically store nuts in shell for about 6 months in a pantry and up to a year if kept in the freezer if outside of shell.
Milled Grains – Once the grain has been milled, it has an extremely short lifespan and must be kept wrapped well in the freezer but will not be kept long term in buckets due to the grains oil within going rancid. Many companies will sell pancake mix which is a flour base but keep in mind that it typically is sealed in mylar bags and has some form of preservative to make it last. Flours will typically last on the shelf anywhere between 3 to 8 months under ideal conditions.
Brown Rice – Due to brown rice having a higher oil content (like grains), it will go rancid much faster and shouldn’t be kept in your long-term storage preparations. However, white rice has a much lower oil content and can in many cases be kept in long term storage. Brown rice will last in ideal condition for about 6-12 months but will keep longer if you place in a freezer bag in your freezer.
Saltine Crackers – Yet again, oil content will cause the crackers to become rancid and can actually give you a bit of a stomachache as one of my kiddos found out when they were younger. It doesn’t matter which brand you purchase; they will last in an unopened container on the shelf for 6-8 months.
Graham Crackers or other Dessert Crackers – These will sometimes contain eggs, dairy and oils which will drastically reduce their shelf life. If kept in ideal conditions, they will last between 6-8 months.
Cold Cereal – Not only do most cereal contain artificial sweeteners, colors and flavoring, they can contain artificial preservatives that are dangerous for humans to consume. But they have preservatives, right? Yeah, but they will still lose their flavor over a period of time so long-term storage is generally frowned upon. If the cereal is sealed in a plastic type bag, you can expect it to last between 6-12 months depending on the type of cereal.
Home Dehydrated Foods – Due to the reality that commercially dehydrated foods are incredibly expensive, many try to save the produce from their garden by dehydrating them. You can keep this short term in glass jars for ideal conditions but putting them in five-gallon buckets for long term storage will not work and could lead to sickness. Depending on the food, if it’s done properly with ideal conditions, you can expect a home dehydrated food to last from 3-5 years.
Brown Sugar – White sugar and molasses both do great for separate long-term storage, but due to moisture content you shouldn’t keep brown sugar any longer than 1-2 years past expiration date.
Premade Bottled Salad Dressing – Unless you eat a fair amount of salad, it’s best to skip stockpiling on this during the big sales at local grocery stores. Salad dressing has an oil base to it which significantly reduces its shelf life. If salad dressing is unopened, you can expect to keep it between 3 – 6 months in ideal conditions.
Dairy – The only dairy that should be long term stored would be that which is commercially available due to the tendency to go rancid. You can purchase commercially dried cheese powder, whole milk powder and even butter powder. Some dairy products can be kept in the freezer for longerer term storage, such as butter or milk but it’s not something you should plan on stockpiling for long term.
Corn Meal – Due to the oil and sugar content it will either go rancid or be attacked by bugs, so you can either purchase commercially dehydrated corn products in buckets or keep corn meal in the freezer up to 1-2 years.
Oats – Most oats are sold in cardboard tubes, and this is not a viable solution for long term storage. I’ve personally kept some of these canisters in the short-term storage supplies and ended up finding weevils in them. I’d recommend not storing this on the shelf longer than 6-8 months but if you want to keep them longer try putting in storage bags in your freezer.
Hard Candies – Due to the tendency of these to absorb water, they will most likely turn into a sticky mess and potentially invite bugs into your supplies. Perhaps you could keep these in your fridge or freezer, but your mileage may vary.
Prepared Mustard – It makes more sense to keep the ingredients to make your own mustard but if you try to stock pile it yourself, be sure to keep an eye on the expiration dates on the bottles. You can keep unopened bottles of prepared mustard for about 3 years but once open you only have 1 year.
Prepared Dried Pasta – You can’t keep boxes of pasta for long term because they can easily be breached by weevils or even rats. You could potentially keep it in storage bags in a five-gallon bucket for 6-8 months but these usually don’t last for very long in the cardboard box.
Liquid Oils – These will go rancid fairly quickly and must be kept in ideal temperature conditions so they don’t go bad but unopened they can last between 1-2 years. Consider replacing some of your fats with lard, ghee or coconut oil and researching the length of how long each product lasts.
Chocolate – Sometimes a dusty white coating develops on the outside of cocoa based chocolate (aka Chocolate Bloom) and while it’s deemed safe to eat, it’s best used in cooked dessert dishes versus being added to granola or ice cream. The rule of thumb seems to be the larger the cocoa content, the longer the product will be edible. However, both sugar and dairy content changes the length of time, so it depends on what chocolate you are trying to preserve.
Mayonnaise – This is a very short shelf stable product and even under stable conditions shouldn’t be kept longer than 3-4 months after its expiration date. This is a very high fat product and is best kept unopened on the shelf, then moved to the fridge once it’s opened and used as soon as possible.
Ketchup – This product generally has sugar within it and will only last from 1-2 years if unopened. Be sure to keep an eye on its expiration date and any ingredient separation that may occur.
There are a variety of other products that I’m sur I haven’t covered because I haven’t had personal experience with them and would recommend checking out a products company website for long term storage information or see if any others have tried to do long term storage with it too.
Suburban & Rural Homesteading Today 