Long Term Food Storage question.

[MKUltra]

I have been using Mylar bags and 2000cc O2 absorbers for my long term food storage. I want to take it a step further and use a vacuum sealer for the Mylar bags with the food and O2 absorbers. It might be an over kill but I like to go that one step further. My questions is this: can you use a vacuum sealer + Mylar + O2 absorbers in combination?

[TrailerparkTrash]

Tin foil. Dont forget the tin foil. You can do almost anything with tin foil, bailing wire and duct tape.

[cranemech]

It is my understanding that the O2 absorbers create a vacuum as they work. Before you seal the Mylar completely, push any excess air out of the bag and let the O2 absorbers do the rest. This is the method I use.
YouTube has several how to videos on sealing Mylar bags

[thenodnarb]

I have been using Mylar bags and 2000cc O2 absorbers for my long term food storage. I want to take it a step further and use a vacuum sealer for the Mylar bags with the food and O2 absorbers. It might be an over kill but I like to go that one step further. My questions is this: can you use a vacuum sealer + Mylar + O2 absorbers in combination?

A lot of people already use a vacuum to suck out most the air before they seal it when using O2 absorbers. I forgot to do that and most of my bags have air in them. I have to buy a new bag of o2 absorbers and reseal them. PITA.

If you have a vacuum sealer I suppose it would work, but to be honest a better solution would be dry ice/CO2. Since the gas is heavier than air, it displaces oxygen and fumigates at the same time killing weevils that are likely in the wheat(or whatever you are storing). I would say that there is no need for vacuum sealing in that situation and you could still throw in O2 absorbers for good measure.

[Richard Erichsen]

I have been using Mylar bags and 2000cc O2 absorbers for my long term food storage. I want to take it a step further and use a vacuum sealer for the Mylar bags with the food and O2 absorbers. It might be an over kill but I like to go that one step further. My questions is this: can you use a vacuum sealer + Mylar + O2 absorbers in combination?

Absolutely and it is the recommended method if you want to get the air out from inside the bag. A hand pump is all you need and some of those can be had or even made for a few dollars. The main reason this is done though is so the bags contain only the food item and no space is wasted inside the bag. The side benefit is there is less air to encourage any nasties from growing in there. My first batch of pails didn't go so well because I wasn't aware of how many larvae tend to be in grain products and opened one of my pails after a couple of months to check and found it full of Indian Meal Moth larvae. It wouldn't have mattered if they weren't in there, there were also bacterial growth unrelated to the moths that had largely destroyed the grain. That was a good learning episode.

Since then I always add a few oz. of diatomaceous earth (there are two kinds, the one for filters and the one for pests, get the one for pests) blended into each bag of grain products, then freeze the bag, do a day of moisture removal if the contents isn't already below 6% moisture and then toss quickly into a vaccum heatsealed bag, add the O2 absorbers and maybe a a test strip or two so I can randomly check in a few months if a strip has been exposed to moisture which brings the seals on the pails into question.

An often overlooked step in the food prep is freezing. Are you freezing the food (31 F degrees for a few days, colder if your freezer will go lower)? Anaerobic bacteria thrive in an oxygen free environment, but if you kill them off with freezing. For products likely to contain pests and not just bacteria, you'll solve that problem too. The diatoms are the second level of defense since the very act of mixing the diatoms into the food item will tend to scratch the egg sacks or larvae and cause them to loose moisture, killing them.

The real test is making a batch and going back in to check in a few years and finding no bacterial growth, no pests and no signs of seal rupture. If you can get a few years of stable food storage, it tends to remain stable for decades.

R

[problemchild]

Bad idea

Two types (actually more) of mylar bags. Normal which you are using now and vac seal mylar which have a stretchy material and special weld seams. If you vac a normal bag you are asking for problems.