Ben Franklin once said, “A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body”. Glenn Beck Food Storage is here to help you with your short and long-term food storage needs. We’re a firm believer that if you take care of your food storage needs, you will have taken a great leap forward in providing the “fire” you need for the mind.

Food storage for various types of emergencies should be part of each home preparedness program. Everyone needs to learn how to determine if food is safe, and how to keep food safe during short and long-term storage.

Before you begin working on your long-term food storage list, first you need to learn how to store various food types and which method is better for your situation. So let’s get started!

You should never taste food to determine its safety. Each item has to be evaluated separately. Also, food that has thawed or partially thawed can be refrozen as long as it still contains ice crystals. Although frozen food can be a portion of your short-term food storage plans, it should of course not be a consideration for long-term food storage because of the possibility of loosing electricity.

The first thing you should do to begin your food storage plan is to determine which food preservation method is best for your particular situation. Methods you will want to consider should include dehydrated foods, freeze dried foods, and canned goods. Once you have determined this, you can move on to determine how much of each food type is needed per person, per week, or month in your food storage plan. Your long- term goal should be to eventually have a full year of food storage for you and your family.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each food preservation method.

Let’s start with Freeze-Dried Foods. They are normally made from fresh foods that have been flash frozen and had the water removed. This allows most freeze-dried foods to have up to a 25-year shelf life. The advantages of food storage using the Freeze-Dried method seem to be mainly related to taste and preparation time. Since they normally come pre-cooked and all you have to do is add a little hot or cold water, they are easy and fast to prepare and easy to clean up. They also store up to 25 years.

The only disadvantages that we have determined are that they are a little more expensive than the dehydrated food storage method, and although they require less water than dehydrated foods, you do have to have water to prepare them.

Dehydrated Foods on the other hand is a process used whereby the foods are not cooked and water is taken out of the food. This food storage method produces foods that have very little taste and have to be seasoned a lot. The main advantages of dehydrated foods are the shelf life of up to 25 years for most foods, and it is very inexpensive in comparison to Freeze Dried Methods.

There are several disadvantages to Dehydrated Foods because they are not pre-cooked and take more preparation time and clean up. A big disadvantage when compared to freeze-dried food storage is that the dehydrated foods require a lot more water.

The subject of “Canned Foods” is a little ambiguous. Although you can “home can” foods, for purposes of this article, we are referring to “store purchased” canned goods for food storage. As you know, canned goods have a “best if used by” date. This represents the length of time the food will retain most of its taste and nutritional value. There is also a “life sustaining” shelf – life timeframe for foods that is very dependent on the storage conditions such as temperature, moisture, oxygen and light. We will discuss this more in future articles.

Generally speaking, canned goods have the most taste and nutritional value if used by the expiration date, however, for long- term food storage you need to set up a rotation method. The main advantage to using canned foods is that there is little preparation time and clean up, and no water needed in the preparation.

The main disadvantage is, of course, the shelf life, if you use the expiration labels. Studies have shown, however, that when properly stored, canned goods can be edible up to 20 or 30 years or better, even though they may loose their taste and a lot of their nutritional value.

In summary, Glenn Beck Food Storage believes that the best option for long-term food storage is the Freeze- Dried Food Storage method, although Dehydrated Food Storage may be the best “value”. You will have to determine which method is best for your particular situation.

GLENN BECK FOOD STORAGE
http://glennbeckfoodstorage.org/glenn-beck-food-storage/]

Author: Jane Alexander http://glennbeckfoodstorage.org
Food storage for various types of emergencies should be part of each home preparedness program. Everyone needs to learn how to determine if food is safe, and how to keep food safe during short and long-term storage.: –
http://glennbeckfoodstorage.org/glenn-beck-food-storage/

Author Bio: GLENN BECK FOOD STORAGE
http://glennbeckfoodstorage.org/glenn-beck-food-storage/]

Category: Advice
Keywords: food storage,emergency food storage, long term food storage, glenn beck food storage