Bag It! Packaging Bulk Food With Nitrogen

Peak Moment 167: Nevada County locals Jim Wray and Loraine Webb show us the how and why of packaging bulk foods with nitrogen. They're using equipment available for community members to use at minimal cost. Jim demonstrates packaging: make plastic bags using a heat sealer, fill with foodstuffs, suck out the oxygen with a small vacuum, then replace the air with nitrogen and seal. Loraine, organizer of The Neighborhood Readiness Project, has arranged with several locally-owned grocery stores to sell 25 pound bags of grains, beans and other bulk foods at just above cost. Loraine's vision is our having food caches in every neighborhood in the county, so that, if the trucks stop rolling in an emergency, we'll have food for ourselves AND to share with our neighbors.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• preparedness
• food
• emergency

[ecraftsmen]

Interesting video. My one concern is that this series is dealing with a post or peak-oil world, but the plastic bags are made from... oil? What (if any) alternatives are available that are less oil dependent?

[peakmoment]

@ecraftsmen, good point. Gonna be a challenge to wean ourselves off oil. Have you any ideas? Glass jars come to mind. And re-usable plastics, like buckets (using oxygen packets rather than nitrogen)?

[ecraftsmen]

@peakmoment - food storage is a new area to me, so I'm in aw of what you are doing, just being a bit pedantic in pointing out the long term problem. In the short term, the obvious consequence of PO will be cost of the bags rising (so maybe buy them in bulk now!). But a video on various types of food storage would be good?

[peakmoment]

@ecraftsmen, good thought. As I find people doing it, I will. We have an upcoming show with Kathy Harrison on food preservation that'll cover some of this topic. (See my blog at peakmoment(dot)tv/journal/?p=1­55 about taping this show). ~ Janaia

[CTOL1]

A drinking straw works quite well to evacuate a bag. With so many products now coming in resealable bags washing them and allowed to dry for a few days, you will have very very usable bags. Failing to use nitrogen is not an ultimate problem, keeping the air and moisture out is most of what your trying to accomplish. This nitrogen concept is very good, I am just saying, in lieu of a vacuum devise you can get a resealable bag to a very high degree of vacuum with nothing but a straw and your lips!

[peakmoment]

@CTOL1, I like the simplicity of your idea. Perhaps one could add a small oxygen tablet to remove some oxygen and lengthen the shelf life?

[hitssquad]

Another way to remove oxygen is to seal oxygen-absorbing packets in with the food. See:

google. com/search?q=alan+hagan+food+s­torage+faq

survival-center. com/foodfaq/ff1-toc. htm

survival-center. com/foodfaq/ff17-oxy. htm

If the oxygen is removed, anaerobic bacteria can form. You were aware of that, right?

You are planning on rotating this food, right? It isn't in perfect stasis, and one needs to be eating what one stores for morale and decay-testing reasons.

[MultiModality]

Google: You can't store grocery store items for five to ten years, as you can with specially freeze-dried or sealed foods packed in nitrogen or vacuum sealed. As a result, if you go with a larder full of grocery items, you can't develop your food stash and walk away. You need to rotate your stock, either on an ongoing basis or every two to three months.

[amandarin2]

@peakmoment one option might be PHVB. It's made from different kinds of food starch. Some concerns are raised however about growing food only to use it to make plastic.

[AH64armyaviator]

Good information, but too loquacious.  Also if air is comprised of approximately 78% Nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% other gasses then how is adding 100% Nitrogen going to increase the amount 5 times in the bag? I apparently did not have the same math nor physics instructors; but who knows maybe they were wrong, I would like to hear the reasoning and analysis for the 5x hypothesis. TY in advance. Keep up the good work!

[xl0l0l0l0lx]

WOW! a 5 minute video packed into a 26 minute package. 1 unlike

[westkan]

Realizing that, that old boy has his routine down pat. I'f think using foot operated switches to control the vacuum & nitrogen, could make the process a less bit trickier for those who used the equipment just only occasionally. An interest vid thanks for making it.