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.
By hitssquad, April 26, 2010 @ 3:17 pm
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.
By hitssquad, April 26, 2010 @ 3:30 pm
Honeyville Grain sells oxygen absorbers:
store. honeyvillegrain. com/oxygenabsorbers100cc. aspx
“Honeyville’s Oxygen Absorbers add life and longevity to your food storage items. Properly canned items using oxygen absorbers benefit from significantly extended shelf life and freshness. Our Oxygen Absorbers completely eliminate residual oxygen in your sealed packages, keeping products fresh and preventing discoloration.
By hitssquad, April 26, 2010 @ 3:31 pm
“Used widely in the Food Service Industry to preserve foods like beef jerky, nuts, grains, flour, and just about any dried foods. Our 200 pack of S100 High Efficiency Oxygen Absorbers is effective for about 100 #10 cans or 25 5 gallon buckets filled with beans, grains or flours.
Activated by air regardless of moisture levels
Start working fast (in about an hour)
Can be used with both moist and dry foods
By hitssquad, April 26, 2010 @ 3:32 pm
“Plan to use oxygen absorbers within 6 months of purchase as they will lose effectiveness after that time. Oxygen absorbers will begin to work as soon as the plastic outer packaging (do not open the individual packets) is opened. Please plan ahead and either use all of the absorbers or seal the remaining packets in an airtight glass mason jar. This will cause the packets to stop working until air is introduced again.”
By bluesubhash, April 26, 2010 @ 6:12 pm
@hitssquad I have used oxygen absorbers for a while and they work really well. The only thing I have noticed is that seeds would usually have probles sprouting. Maybe the amount of oxygen absorbed is so much that there is nothing left for the seeds to breath.
For other types of food is just perfect…
By hitssquad, April 26, 2010 @ 6:22 pm
@bluesubhash ” I have noticed [...] that seeds would usually have probles sprouting.”
Thanks for the feedback. I hadn’t heard about that. I wonder why that is. Maybe it somehow has something to do with the enzymes in the seeds.
By gigantopithecus01, April 26, 2010 @ 9:05 pm
Interesting.
By peakmoment, April 28, 2010 @ 4:36 am
@bluesubhash, a local friend says NOT to put oxygen tablets with seeds, grains or beans you want to sprout.
By peakmoment, April 28, 2010 @ 4:39 am
@MultiModality, toward the end Loraine tells us they’re replacing oxygen with nitrogen, our non-greenhouse gas of choice. It’s safe to be released in the atmosphere. Various studies show good storage from 3-10 years. Oxygen breaks down not only nutrients, but also decomposes foods. Replacing with nitrogen will clean anaerobic molds and critters.”
By peakmoment, April 28, 2010 @ 4:41 am
@PsyogiBottoms, I love your spirit. But as a seamstress, I couldn’t make money producing a Tee shirt for that little — if you’re talking about sewing from scratch. (Difficult fabric to sew, a fairly complex pattern with curves, and things like neck ribbing that are woven into the textile but not if sewn by hand). Couldn’t compete with low labor and transport costs. Yet.
By peakmoment, April 28, 2010 @ 4:43 am
@valhala56, I expect processed food like that doesn’t need nitrogen. It wouldn’t break down for decades, given all the preservatives and non-food items that go into them. You heard about the study that found MacDonalds food wouldn’t compost in 500 years? It was an April fool’s day article, but my hunch is it’s not too far from the truth.
By PsyogiBottoms, April 28, 2010 @ 11:19 am
But that wasn’t the point. It isn’t about making money – or profit – it is about self sustainability, isn’t it.
Like myself – I don’t need to make a profit – I only need to sustain my self and my family. Profit is excess used to buy surplus. This is not needed in a truly integrated, self sustained world.
The point is 100% my paper labor would go directly to you and your family rather than overseas to a poorer country.
Regardless, you now have 100% of my value to acquire for yourself. Unstnd?
By PsyogiBottoms, April 28, 2010 @ 11:25 am
We must let go of this archaic model and embrace a new paradigm. The old world is dying while the New World is emerging from its seed. Growth is fed by nurishment. Look to nature to answer your problems, it has solved them all a long time ago.
No animal but man must enslave itself and others to survive. Animals and plants do not ‘profit’ that they do not reinvest in their own local environment.
It is spring – all we must do is produce abundantly.
Nature will balance itself we must become one.
By PsyogiBottoms, April 28, 2010 @ 1:44 pm
A better example might be this: Let us say I would like you to make for me, or my family, some shorts and some shirts for this summer. As a measure of value – How many: lbs. of Wheat, corn, sugar, apples, oranges, peaches, strawberries, hand made soaps, organic detergents, fire wood, gravel, squash, carrots, almonds, cashews,honey, wax, herbs, beans, potatoes, shoes, boots, metal-wares, medicines, paint, broccoli, fish, cheese, milk, bread…you get the picture?
Money is useless – Create Make.
By PsyogiBottoms, April 28, 2010 @ 1:47 pm
@valhala56 Exactly my point. Precisely…CapnCrunch? lol
By christo930, April 28, 2010 @ 7:15 pm
What is the point of storage with nitrogen as opposed to vacuum sealing?
By bluesubhash, April 29, 2010 @ 12:06 am
@peakmoment Yes, I know that now. The best way to storage that kind of seeds is by using DIATOMACEOUS EARTH. It should be Food Grade, like Perma-Guard.
Regards!!
By peakmoment, April 29, 2010 @ 1:45 am
@yonny1954, I’m totally with you on self-reliance skills. I’m can report that I learned how to use the on-off switch while keeping the bag opening closed so as not to introduce more oxygen, while at the same tme getting the feel for how much air to suck out so the bag remained flexible. It took a few passes but wasn’t impossible. But, like any new manual skill where you have to juggle several factors a once, it takes practice.
By CTOL1, April 29, 2010 @ 1:51 am
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!
By peakmoment, April 29, 2010 @ 4:18 am
@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?
By westkan, May 2, 2010 @ 1:55 pm
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.
By ecraftsmen, June 13, 2010 @ 9:21 pm
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?
By peakmoment, June 14, 2010 @ 1:19 am
@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)?
By ecraftsmen, June 14, 2010 @ 8:47 am
@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?
By peakmoment, June 14, 2010 @ 3:27 pm
@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