While a large food storage pantry is desirable, especially these days, not everything should be stored in large quantities. At least not in the same packaging.
Preppers all over the world are stocking up on food supplies. For many, dry goods such as beans, rice, flour, sugar, and more are a big part of the storage program. Often, these staples are sealed in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, then placed in five gallon buckets for long term storage.
While this is fine for a number of food stuffs, it isn’t the best way to store many food items. I know of one prepper friend of mine that packed up a five gallon bucket of banana chips. Healthy and tasty for sure, and I applaud him for his efforts, but he also realized that he made a mistake in doing this. Once opened, even with one of the zippered resealable bags, food begins to degrade. My prepper friend suddenly realized that it would be ill advised to eat a five gallon bucket of banana chips before they lost nutrients and flavor. That and the thought of what making those banana chips a huge part of his diet for weeks. Could you imagine the appetite fatigue? Could you imagine the gastrointestinal consequences?
The fact is, many food items are best stored in smaller packages for a few reasons. First of all, rotating out ingredients will help avoid appetite fatigue. Eating the same thing day after day will cause you to lose your appetite and your caloric intake will fall dramatically.
Bartering is bound to be a substitute for currency in a post SHTF world. Food is anticipated to be a high value item used for trade in this way. Just like with traditional paper currency, smaller denominations make for easier transactions and can help obscure your total storage. Letting people know that you have food by the bucket load can make you a bigger temptation for looters and raiders. Presenting a one gallon bag of food, along with some phoney hesitation, keeps your cards closer to your chest.
If a situation devolves to the point of needing to bug out, being able to grab one or two buckets containing a variety of foods is much faster and takes less space than needing to load dozens of buckets into your vehicle just to be able to prepare an actual meal. Many freeze dried food suppliers have already figured this out and pack pre made buckets with a variety of meals. Doing the same at home is a much cheaper way to do this and allows you to eliminate foods that you don’t like.
Food storage kits with a variety of mylar bag sizes and oxygen absorbers are available on Amazon. Your favorite doomsday dealer such as Rapid Survival will also be able to provide you with a variety of sizes, including the five gallon variety for those items that actually make sense to store in larger quantities.
Keep it small, keep it portable, keep it smart!