Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
*For example, if the members of your family consist of: 1 man (1.0), 1 woman (0.85), 1 boy between ages 7 and 11
(0.95), and 1 other child between 4 and 6 (0.6), your family should store the amount of food needed by the equivalent
of 3.4 men. So, 325 lbs. of grain × 3.4 (adult male equivalents) = 1,095 lbs. of grain to feed your family of four for one
year. (Source: Adapted from James Talmage Stevens, Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook,
Gold Leaf Press, 1997)
Storage Tips
The main culprits responsible for destroying your food stores are time, moisture, heat, oxygen,
mold, and pests. Poor food selection and improper packaging can compound the problem. Time
is always working against you. Try to store what you normally eat, so you can rotate stocks. Do
not store dented cans or other goods with damaged packaging. Molds can grow in low-moisture
environments and are extremely toxic.
Do not eat moldy foods or food from bulging
cans—sickness or death may result.
Keep stored foods cool, clean, dark, and dry. Try to keep them below 70˚F. The optimum
storage for most nonfrozen foods is 35˚F to 40˚F. Shelf life decreases by 50 percent for each
20˚F increase, even for canned foods. Moisture, food, oxygen, and above-freezing temperatures
are the key ingredients insects need to grow. A few bug eggs, once they hatch, can rapidly des-
troy a sealed container of dry food, if they have an adequate supply of oxygen and moisture.
Sunlight also contributes to the degradation of many stored foods.
Store foods in manageable sizes of containers. If you are packaging food yourself, I recom-
mend no. 10 cans (approximately 1 gallon) or the 5-gallon size. Garbage cans will not keep
critters out without airtight liners, are heavy to move, and you risk losing large amounts of food
from a single contamination.
Commercial foods are generally free of pests, but paper packaging will not keep pests out
for long. All goods packaged in paper, or other flimsy materials, must be repackaged for long-
term storage.
Mice, rats, cockroaches, and beetles are “dirty” pests that carry diseases. The foods they
have spoiled should be discarded. Weevils, found in many flours and grains, are “clean” pests
and are not harmful if consumed.
You can freeze containers of food to destroy living insects, but this will not usually kill
their eggs. Refreeze the container after thirty days to destroy bugs that have hatched. Freeze in
an upright or chest freezer (not the freezer section of a standard kitchen refrigerator) for 72
hours at 0˚F or lower.
