Food Shelf Life

    

     Something I have been working on with my prepping is food storage.  However to effectively start a store of food for when SHTF you need to know how long different types of food can be stored.  The result is that I have found out the shelf life for different types of foods that might be stored.

Food Shelf Life List:



Soft Grains - Barley, Oat Groats, Rolled Oats and Quinoa Rye
8 years

Hard Grains - Buckwheat, Corn, Dry Flax, Kamut, Millet, Durum Wheat, Hard Red Wheat, Hard White Wheat, Speacial Bake Wheat, Spelt and Triticale
20-25 years

Beans - Adzuki, Blackeye, black Turtle, Garbanzo, Great Northern, Kidney, Lentils, Lima, Mung, Pink, Pinto, Small Red and Soy
8-10 years

Dehydrated Vegetables - Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Celery, Onions, Peppers, Potatoes, Corn
8-10 Years

Dehydrated Dairy Products - cheese pwoder, cocoa powder, powdered eggs, butter/margarine powder, powdered milk, morning moo and whey powder
5 years

Flour and Other Crack/Ground Seed Products
5 years (If the grain is kept whole and ground as needed they will last 5 times as long.)

Freeze Dried Food
25-30 years

Canned Meat, Fruits and Vegetables
At least 2 years. (This is the minimum amount of time a properly canned product will last, and some canned goods have been found a hundred years after canned and were still edible!)

Pasta
10-15 years

Hard Liquor and Vinegar
Indefinately

Dried Fruit and Vegetables
10-15 years

Honey, Salt and Sugars
Indefinitely

Brown Rice
6-8 months

White Rice
8-10 years (However some sorces say it can be stored indefinately if stored properly.)

Yeast
2 years if kept refrigerated

     This list should help with food storage.  Remember the shelf life times listed are dependant on proper storage.  For other things that arn't on this list try looking for the date list on the package for how long something is good for.

     Remember these shelf lifes are the expected amount of time something will last.  If food doesn't look right or smell right then there is a good chance it isn't any good anymore.  If a food doesn't seem right don't chance eating it even if it is supposed to be able to last much longer than it has.

     Another helpful tip for your food storage, remember to put the date on items when you put them in storage so you know how long it has been stored and you can keep track of when different products should be rotated and swapped out.

~Sara