[Tarliam]

this is some info from the lds church on food storage:

A year’s supply of food storage is beneficial in several ways:

1. It provides peace of mind as we obey the counsel to store.

2. It helps ensure survival in case of personal or natural disaster.

3. It strengthens skills in preparing and using basic foods.

Once you have stored the basic food items, you need to regularly include them in your daily meals.

This article and other suggestions that will be printed in the following months in the Random Sampler department of

the Ensign will provide information on how to store, prepare, and serve meals based on foodstuffs recommended in

the First Presidency letter. Other sources of information include ward and stake priesthood leaders and Relief

Society presidencies, Church welfare centers or canneries, local extension agents or agricultural services

departments, and public and educational libraries.

The following guidelines will help in purchasing and storing basic food items.

Grains
Grains include wheat, rice, rolled oats, dried corn, pearled barley, and other cereal grains. Flour, cornmeal, and

pasta products such as macaroni and spaghetti are also included. Each family should store various grain items that

suit their individual circumstances. For example, rather than storing three to four hundred pounds of wheat per

person, a family might choose to store two hundred pounds of wheat, one hundred pounds of flour, twenty-five pounds

of rice, twenty-five pounds of rolled oats, twenty-five pounds of dried corn, and twenty-five pounds of macaroni

per person. There are numerous combinations. This gives variety to the menu and encourages using and rotating the

supply. It also provides choices for those who do not like or cannot eat a particular grain.

Most grains can be dry-pack canned in small containers (see below). This makes them more convenient to use and

reduces the possibility of spoilage. Grains may also be stored in tightly sealed metal or heavy plastic containers.

Legumes
Legumes—an inexpensive, nutritious protein food—include beans (soy, pinto, white, kidney, lima, winged, red, navy,

pink, and blackeyed), split peas, lentils, and peanuts. They can be stored in clean, dry metal or plastic

containers with tight-fitting lids. They may also be dry-pack canned.

Fats and Oils
Fat is essential to every diet. Shortening, cooking oil, margarine, and mayonnaise are suggested for storage. Store

fats in sealed containers in cool, dry, dark places and rotate them frequently.

Powdered Milk
Nonfat powdered milk, instant or regular, is an excellent storage item. It contains all the nutrients, except fat,

found in fresh milk.

In the past, storing large amounts of powdered milk has been recommended. However, this has often led to spoilage

and waste. More recent studies show that smaller quantities of milk are adequate if people store and eat larger

quantities of grains.

Powdered milk can be stored in the original sealed packages, or if purchased in bulk, it can be stored in tightly

covered metal or plastic containers. It can also be dry-pack canned.

You may also use canned milk as part of the milk storage program, but you must rotate it regularly.

Salt
Nutritionists recommend iodized rather than plain salt, when it is available. Store salt in its original container

in a cool, dry place.

Sugar and Honey
Whether to store sugar or honey is a matter of personal choice. Sugar may harden; honey may crystallize and/or

darken. Neither affects the safety of the product.

Store honey in small containers. Then, if it crystallizes, you can immerse the containers in hot (not boiling)

water to reliquefy it.

Store granulated sugar in a tightly covered metal or plastic container or place it on a shelf away from moisture in

its unopened cloth or paper bag. Occasionally knead the bag to help prevent the sugar from hardening.

Water
Water is more essential than food in sustaining life. Store a minimum of seven gallons of water per person for

drinking and food preparation. Store an additional seven gallons per person of the same quality water for bathing,

brushing teeth, and dishwashing. Use heavy plastic containers with tight-fitting lids. Metal containers, which may

corrode, tend to give water an unpleasant taste.

If you have any doubt as to the bacterial safety of stored water, you may purify it by boiling vigorously for one

to two minutes or by adding chlorine bleach (5 percent sodium hypochlorite solution). Generally, half a teaspoon of

bleach will purify five gallons of clear water, and one teaspoon will purify five gallons of cloudy water. If you

store it away from sunlight in clean containers, and if it is safe bacterially at the time of storage, water will

remain pure indefinitely.

Storage Guidelines
1. Use storage areas that are well ventilated, clean, dark, dry, and cool. If your conditions are less

satisfactory, rotate contents more frequently than recommended. Even though space may be limited, there are usually

“hidden areas” for storage. Use your imagination!

2. Do not place food storage containers on or against cement or dirt floors and walls. Place pieces of wood between

the storage containers and the floor or wall to provide ventilation and protect against moisture.

3. Keep stored food away from products that may affect the flavor of the food.

4. Rotate and use food storage items regularly. Date food items as you purchase or can them, then store new

supplies of food at the back of the shelves, moving earlier purchases forward to be used first.

5. Do not go into debt. Acquire food items gradually. At the very least, save a few dollars a week for storage

items. Using the basic foods in day-to-day menus can cut food costs and allow you to purchase more supplies. Or, as

a family, give up some of the nonessentials for a short time until you can accumulate additional foods. Through

prayer and concerted effort, you can work out a food storage plan that will provide you with security and peace of

mind.

No single food storage plan will work for everyone. Each family’s needs differ, as does their financial ability to

accumulate the storage items. But by working under the direction of the First Presidency “to concentrate on

essential foods,” it can be done. President Ezra Taft Benson has said on at least three different occasions, “The

revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to

the people in the days of Noah.” (Ensign, Nov. 1980, p. 33.)

Dry-Pack Canning
With the exception of foods containing fats, most of the storage items discussed here can be sealed by a dry-pack

method of canning. Dry-pack canning is easy and inexpensive and uses containers that are small enough that they can

be easily rotated and handled. In addition to dry-pack canning equipment available for use at some Church

canneries, dry-pack canners may be checked out from the canneries for local use. For more information, contact your

region welfare agent (your stake president can tell you who he is), welfare cannery, or bishops’ storehouse.





Are canned and packaged foods on the shelves at the supermarkets marked with the date of processing? Is there a dating code used on boxed or cartoned foods? These are questions homemakers are asking. Most packaged (canned, boxed, cartoned) foods are produced in tremendous quantities by the food industry and marked with codes for purposes of identification. It is most desirable that all containers of one batch be identified to prevent mixup during warehouse storage, transportation, and marketing. If any defect in processing or formulation were to occur, it could then be isolated. With raw fruits and vegetables, the raw product quality may vary with climate and other conditions. With coding, the “best” quality may be separated from the “better” quality. Several codes may be used each day or there may be just one code for the day’s processing.

One supermarket chain indicated recently that it would reveal what its codes were. How would understanding the code be helpful to the consumer? Knowing the code would not tell the whole story. It would tell only one thing—the date the food was placed in the container.

But other vital information is revealed by the food in the package. The homemaker should be aware of such points as these: (1) Does the food have a normal, inviting color? (2) How does the food taste when you prepare it? (3) Is the texture acceptable? (4) Is the food nutritionally valuable? The first three questions are best answered by the ones who prepare and eat the food, and are not necessarily related to nor often much affected by the date of packaging. The nutritional value of the food is not readily evident (it may be listed on the label), but it is generally related to the quality of the color, flavor, and texture.

Whether the end product is buttered green peas, angel food cake mix, or fish sticks, the food quality depends on the raw materials. The quality is not improved by processing; most often it is partially destroyed. The nutritional quality of the processed food will depend on the variety of the fruit or vegetable, its maturity, and the freedom from disease and pests before it goes into the container. The actual processing of the food will have an effect: for example, blanching green beans or peas too long leaches out flavor, standing after blanching affects color and texture, too much chlorine in the water changes flavor, and overcooking is undesirable.

The main reason canned fruits and vegetables do not taste like those freshly cooked is because sterilization is used, requiring very high temperatures for twenty to thirty minutes. This causes rapid changes in color, flavor, texture, and nutritional value. New methods of processing that employ a higher temperature for a shorter time can sterilize the food and maintain more of the quality.

Quality of food may also be expected to deteriorate slowly with storage because of time and temperature. A good temperature for storage of canned food is 50° F., which is almost refrigerator cool. An increase of 20° F. approximately doubles the rate of deterioration; thus, food stored at 70° F. will deteriorate twice as fast as food stored in 50° F. Since 50° might be difficult to maintain, you can store foods over a long period at 70°. Storage at 90° F. is highly undesirable, as it promotes rapid deterioration.

Values for shelf life at 70° F. reported by the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Corps (1951) indicate that canned fruits and vegetables may reasonably be stored for extended periods of time. Low-acid fruits such as pineapple, peaches, fruit cocktail, grapefruit, apples, and pears will keep for thirty-six months, while highly colored, high-acid fruits such as blackberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, and plums will retain quality for twelve months or more.

Low-acid vegetables such as beets, cauliflower, squash, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes may keep for more than four years, while peas, corn, and lima beans may keep for as many as eight years. Asparagus, carrots, green beans, and spinach were reported to keep for three years or more.

During these long storage periods quality is slowly being lost, which suggests that for stored foods in general, it is best to eat and replenish them as soon as it is practical. When buying food, how it looks, how it tastes, and how it feels in the mouth, as well as its nutritive value, are the best indicators for repeat purchases and the best bases for making case-lot purchases.