How to Prepare Food for Long-Term Storage

Labeling stored foods with a date helps to keep track of a food's age.

Prepare foods for long-term storage by creating an environment that makes it difficult for bacteria to survive. Preservation techniques like salting, cooking, smoking and pickling have been used for centuries to preserve foods beyond their life span as a fresh product. Using time-tested preservation procedures in combination with high-quality, food-safe packaging gives foods the best possible chance at a long shelf life. Make your food budget last by properly preparing foods for long-term storage.

Things You'll Need

• Knife
• Cutting board
• Vacuum food sealer (optional)
• Labels

Instructions

1. Consider the specific food item you intend to prepare for long-term storage and how to best preserve it before packaging. Dry foods and grains may require no preservation prior to storage. Meats and vegetables with high moisture content should be dried by smoking, salting or cooking. Pickling foods by adding vinegar or lemon juice makes the food too acidic for bacterial growth. Freeze-drying is a more expensive preparation option, but it removes moisture from foods very effectively.

   See Resources 1 for a guide to smoking, curing and preserving meats.

2. Cut foods into bite-sized or smaller pieces prior to preserving them. This will expose more surface area for optimal effectiveness. Smaller pieces of food are able to group closely together and will trap fewer air bubbles --which harbor bacteria -- when they are packaged.

3. Carefully preserve the food using clean implements. Food can be easily contaminated if it comes in contact with dirty hands or surfaces before or after canning, smoking, curing, cooking or freeze-drying.

4. Fill an air-tight glass or plastic container with the prepared food, leaving less than half an inch of head room at the top. Some canisters allow you to burp out air to reduce the oxygen content inside the container. Mylar plastic bags sealed with a vacuum food sealer are the best possible option, as they allow the user to remove all oxygen prior to sealing.

5. Label to the outside of the sealed container with the current date so that older foods are used first. A basic label can be made with masking tape and a permanent marker.

6. Place sealed containers of prepared food in a cool, dark and dry space for long-term storage. Avoid opening and resealing the foods to keep them fresh for as long as possible.

   See Resources 2 for a guide to estimated shelf lives for stored foods.

Tips & Warnings

• Never reuse storage bags or container without first sterilizing them with boiling water or pressurized steam.

References

• Village Earth: Crop Drying, Preservation, and Storage
• OPH Good Housekeeping: Preserving Food: How Do You Do It?

Resources

• Smoking and Curing
• Shelf Life Guide