Some (more) long term food storage results AND some new MRE choices

[Lowdown3]

I've used 8 of my 9 lives on demystifying new prepper food storage myths!!!

[surviort_wwdnet]

Are you still alive?😉

[Lowdown3]

The latest nautical nonsense from Sponge Bob New Prepper....

So some new guy on Reddit was freaking cause he heard some jackass new person say that pasta that is stored with oxygen absorbers will create "botulism."

I gotta say, it's practically a part time disputing all the stupid eff'in stuff some of these new folks come with. Seriously. I'm passionate about people actually storing food, and that's my downfall, cause I realize how many of these folks read dumb stuff like that and then it creates INACTION.. And INACTION doesn't feed your hungry family when the time comes.

So as usually I went and dug out the oldest pasta products I could find in storage to refute this current round of BS..





The #10 of Egg Noodles is from Walton/Rainy Day foods, packed in the mid 1996. Walton was/is a major wholesaler and they pack dehydrated food for MANY of the names you all know that you think or the company says they pack themselves... Simply relabeling their product. Just as Albertson's supermarket doesn't own big farms growing every possible produce plus a cannery to pack it in, they simply RELABEL product canned by other places.

The 2 1/2 can is from Ready Reserve and was packed in 1992, yes, older than some of you reading this who are undoubtedly freaking out about "botulism" in pasta now...

These have both been stored in HIGH HEAT, NOT CLIMATE CONTROLLED environments since purchased in the 1990's.

2 Kings 4:40 LOL



Came out looking like normal pasta




I'll report back if I die...

[Lowdown3]

So the 1990's Folgers coffee- even the wife who is a bit of a coffee snob- was impressed by how it held up.



Been drinking it every morning for about 3 days now. Smells and tastes normal.

Wish they still made coffee in true #10 type all metal cans and not this plastic and foil BS... May try the Asian store next time I'm in Jax to see if they have coffee still like that???

Been working on the can of Mt. House Italian Pepper steak. Have had that about four or five times now.

As is often the case, "serving size" suggested is relatively small-



But I would assume most folks know that this is easily stretched with rice. A pot of rice made for 3-4 people with 3-4 "servings" of this mixed over the rice is a great way to stretch the more expensive entree out a little more. Supplement with some fresh veg from the garden as possible.

MRE cocoa- yep, same as it ever was. Early 1990's cocoa, stored in high heat/high humidity in S. GA still good after all these years. Hopefully the Nattick chart worshipping "how's my sticker look" MRE crowd pays attention to that :) In case you missed it, there was a big thread in general about MREs a while back and some were pee'ing their pants because the little indicator sticker on their MRE cases didn't look 100% perfect even though the meals were fresh. Some worried that "the back of the fedex truck is hot" and that would make them inedible, etc. One argued with me that they would listen to the gubmint charts- instead of real life/real world results. LMAO.

Commonly regurgitated info on the net is dangerous, it had some people believing that "white rice won't store six months" and similar non sense. This new "prepper" crowd is to analytical as it is- overthinking and under doing. We have to be careful with crazy claims of short shelf life if for nothing else that it gives these types more consternation and feeds their inaction. In the end, your family is either going to have food to eat or they won't. It's stupid to think people will go hungry because of piss poor information on the net.....

[Lowdown3]

Hard red winter wheat packed back in 1998 when we owned and ran a mid size commercial cannery.




We opened that cannery in response to high "Y2K" preparation demand for long term storage foods. At the time, the major LTS food manufacturers were backed up "20-24 weeks" yes, 6 months... And we opened a mid size cannery in a few months and started producing our own #10 cans, Superpails like the one in the picture and offered product by the can, case, bucket or year unit. Late in 1999 as demand was winding down we closed that cannery according to plan and not long after moved to S. GA.

Here is the Superpail with the lid removed-



Showing mylar still sucked down well after 28 years.

And mylar cut open showing product still good after all these years in HIGH HEAT and high humidity storage in S. GA



We've been making a lot of bread at home lately and our #10 cans of Hard red winter wheat from this time period seem to be about run out, so I grabbed a bucket. We use an electric K-Tec grinder for quick, easy milling, but we also have about 5 manual grinders including a Country Living, Back to basics, original Corona mill, one of Lehmans and another one that the name escapes me on right now.


Here's another pic, I took this pic because so many folks over the years that do not regularly use their LTS always ask "what do you do once you open the mylar?" First and foremost your food doesn't go "POOOF" and disappear into mid air. Some items that are very hydroscopic- like any "powdered" items (butter powder, egg mix, milk, etc.) should be re-sealed if you aren't going to continue to use them very regularly. If you packed correctly and did not "cut off the excess" of the mylar like some of the johnny come lately OCD types on Youtube show, you can just scoop what you need out and either A. Re-seal or B. Simply roll the mylar back on itself. Whole grains, beans, etc. will stay good "opened" like years for year, especially if you simply roll the mylar back on itself like so-



What are you rotating from your LTS now? How did it go?

[Lowdown3]

How about some Hard red winter wheat that was stored hard... 27 years in high heat high humidity- look at the can. Surface rust on the lid and all over the can itself. FWIW, these double enamaled cans really have held up a lot better than some of the silver colored cans in the same environment.



Opened up-



Notice the large (for a #10 can) oxygen absorber. These are cans we packed back when we had a commercial cannery in the late 90's. You'll usually see a 250cc or 350cc absorber in #10s, we went larger with a absorber in #10 cans as we did in Superpails also.

Right into the K-tec electric mill (yes we have about 5 options in manual grinders also including a Country Living)



And the end result-



Bread with 27 year old wheat.

[Lowdown3]

What you think? Still good or no? Home canned pickles and preserves from 2009'ish.



Tasted fine. Pickles were a bit soft but might have been when packed, I don't remember. The preserves also tasted fine, got some in the fridge right now to go on some bread made with 29 year old wheat and similar age dry milk.

Unlike 99% of our other storage, the home canned jars were stored inside our house which for 3 months or so of the year does use air conditioning (deep summer). Because of the EXPECTED shorter life span of home canned jars/quarts we always kept these in the houses.

[Lowdown3]

It's tossed for sure.

Walton Feed later renamed Rainy Day foods. They were/are a large mostly wholesale outfit.

This one was from mid 1990's. I didn't look at ingredients but "egg mix" leads me to believe a scrambling egg mix type blend- eggs PLUS something else, sometimes just milk, sometimes more.

Whole eggs by themselves (no milk, etc.) seem to store better.

[surviort_wwdnet]

That looks like a can headed for the landfill if it was mine. What was the exp. date? I've never heard of that brand before, but I know there are Walton stores in Australia.

[Lowdown3]

Barely visible but slight bulge in can. Do NOT be cheap and attempt to open a can like this... You will have a mess!

[surviort_wwdnet]

I have kept my long-term storage food indoors in a climate controlled environment away from UV light. Some of it I've kept past the expected expiration date, hoping good storage conditions might work in my favor. Maybe it won't, but I won't know until I crack open a few of them.

[Lowdown3]

Going through some deep storage again. I always leave a "few" items from various time periods for research, rebuke of new internet non sense like "rice will only store six months" and related drivel we heard a lot of in the 2006 and onward new "prepper" fade.

Here is a sampling of some various stuff of various ages, types of packaging, etc. I'll add to this as more of this is opened up and eaten- or tossed to the chickens if it's bad.



So in the back we have a Provident Pantry 2 1/2 can of Freeze dried Strawberries, circa 2008'ish, some "Yoders canned Bacon" from the similar time frame, a 2 1/2 can of Rolled Oats from Ready Reserve (oldest item, 1990-92), two cans of "Bega" cheese from approximately 2010, 4 MRE entrees of "Cheese Curls" (generic cheetos) (2007-2010) and one MRE entree of Cookie with pan coated chocolate disks (2009-2011)

ALL of these items were stored in NON climate controlled environment- read high heat high humidity in South Georgia. That means temperature swings from 110 (measured) for a month or so in the summer to as little as 19 (measured) in the winter. Not ideal conditions, but ones that will often show the true REAL WORLD longevity of some of these products. So the MRE chart commandos and the overly analytical types will be greatly surprised by these real world conditions and how some of this has fared.

First up is the Provident Pantry 2 1/2 can Freeze dried Strawberries. Once I took the lid off I remembered about the BS foil lids... Not a fan of them. I don't believe they offer the same longevity and perhaps even barrier that a standard can does.



To a degree, my thoughts were validated in that when I started to open the can, no "rush" or "PFFFT" of air like when you pierce a standard #10 can. However the product clearly has an o2 absorber in it and the product is fine. Tasted normal like they originally did 17-18'ish years ago. These are good to eat dry and we rehydrate them with a couple options-



Tried the water option so far and it was fine, will let them set longer but don't expect any issues. The others will be used over the next couple nights ;)

Next MRE cookie with "pan coated chocolate disks". These are always broken up so don't let that bother you, if your an OCD type and that bothers you, don't ever buy, never found one fully intact, it just is what it is.

No foul smell, taste is fairly normal. Can tell it's past it's prime but 110% edible and tasty.



This probably is a good time to bring up that these are survival foods. Too often you see folks hyper critical of long term storage foods. This isn't Gordon Ramsey or whoever TF's cooking. Every meal doesn't have to be a party in your mouth. Again, we are talking survival and foods that can, have and will last decades, not some OCD food critique's TV show..

MRE Cheese curls- these can be hit and miss. I'd say with this old of stuff, seeing about 70% or so that is like it was originally (taste) and the rest are kinda like WTH??? ALL have been edible, some have tasted better than others with the "others" being tossed mid pouch.



This one I'm nibbling on right now and it's on the higher end of OK but not exactly how I remembered them way back. I'll open the rest over the next couple days/week and report on them but pushing 20 years in high heat, this is about the best I expect from this product.

Will open the other items the next few days as I have time and post up about them.

[prc-104]

Meant to mention what one of my coffee backup's is besides the metal cans.
Folgers in the ?1 pound? vacuum packed metal foil packs of coffee.
Storage, I use cardboard boxes, stack them in using white plastic stuff to keep them separated.
So far so good. BTW they are away from any vibration.
Nice thing is as long as they don't balloon up, you know the seal is good.
last tried one from 2003 and it was great. I did use a french press to test it.
Hope this provides somebody with another backup for coffee.
2 is 1, 1 is none.

BTW, I wrote a scathing letter to Cracker Barrel and told them their stupidity was just like Bud Light regarding them woking their logo. F em.

[surviort_wwdnet]

I guess I'll pop open a 3-year-old can of coffee that was stored in the motorhome for 3 years and see how it tastes!

[Lowdown3]

Some 20 year old coffee.

Actually, it could be slightly less, or slightly more, it wasn't marked. However it has the newer foil type top versus the really old skewl can opener top. I "believe" we have a 1990's era can like that of Folgers around- back when I didn't even drink coffee but thought to put it up for my Dad.





Passed the smell test.

I have been mixing the old coffee in with some newer stuff in the coffee container, shaking it up as I mix it altogether. Some of the newer and better stuff tends to mask the older stuff. But have not found any ground coffee that needed to be tossed yet.

So much for the "you HAVE to buy the green beans, spend six years drying them, grinding them blah blah blah" idea that ground coffee won't store. Kinda knew that was BS but good to see real world results. And keep in mind ALL of this old storage was stored in high heat/high humidity situation in the Southeast. In other words, definitely not ideal storage conditions.