Mr. Rawles,
I have been looking around and have found sites for procuring nitrogen packed foods as well as read your books on how to do the same.
One question keeps popping into mind is this: By using five gallon [HDPE plastic] buckets, once opened how long before the food stuffs go bad? Would it be wiser or more advantageous to pack in smaller containers to as not to risk spoilage? I have searched your blog but have not been able to find the answer. Thank you in advance, – James M.
JWR Replies: Your question is a valid one, and you aren’t the first to ask it. The brief answer to you question could be sententiously answered with the phrase: “Shop like Catholic families: shop at Costco.” Let me explain:
On the packaging (“producer”) side, a food container size is determined primarily by material handling time and space efficiency. On the consumer side, package size preference is determined by the size of the family. You pay much more per pound with smaller packages. (“You pay for convenience”, and “Its cheaper wholesale” are both valid expressions.)
Powdered milk, rice, beans, corn meal, wheat and other grains are less expensive to buy (per pound) in six gallon buckets for several reasons:
1.) It is generally less expensive to manufacture one 6 gallon container than it is to manufacture six one gallon containers. This is generally true, regardless of the container material, be it glass, heavy duty plastic, or steel. Consider: How much steel is there in five one-pound coffee cans, compared to one five-pound coffee cans? However, there are some containers such as plastic sacks and retort packaging foils, where the cost differential is minimal.
2.) The employee handling time required is nearly the same to fill a one-gallon container as it is to fill a six-gallon container.
3.) Labeling, handling, and inspection costs increase proportionately, as the number of containers increase.
4.) You will most likely buying your food in big plain buckets from some drab warehouse, rather than from a high overhead retail store in a prime shopping district.
5.) Most bulk-packed storage foods get to your hands with fewer middlemen worked into the pricing equation.
Also consider that it is more space efficient to ship and store foods in larger containers. (Fewer cardboard boxes, more tightly-filled trucks, and so forth.)
Now all the foregoing talk about the efficiency of large containers is well and good for large families. (Typically, Catholic and Mormon families.) But what about retired couples, widows, widowers, or young singles?
Even though most food items might cost more at the outset, someone living alone is probably better off buying food in smaller containers. That way, they are more assured that the product will be used before spoilage occurs. So, for example, instead of buying dehydrated and freeze dried foods in #10 cans (most common in the food service industry) you might instead buy them in smaller cans. (In the long term storage food industry, these smaller cans are usually the #2-1/2 size.)
For future reference, here are some of the standard American can sizes:
| Can Designation | Volume | Liquid Content Weight |
| #1 | Half Pint | 8 Ounces |
| #2 | Pint | 16 Ounces |
| #2-1/2 | 3-1/2 Cups | 30 Ounces |
| #3 | Quart | 32 Ounces |
| #5 | 7-1/3 Cups | 58 Ounces |
| #10 | 13 Cups. Used for “food service” and storage food cans. | 104 Ounces |
| #12 | One Gallon | 128 Ounces |
Note: The #10 size cans are often mistakenly called “gallon cans” but they actually hold less than one gallon.
Other than buying smaller cans, there are various ways to get around the spoilage problem. After first breaking the seal on a large container, spoilage can be minimized via any combination of these techniques:
- Refrigeration
- Freezing
- Cooking
- Brining
- Resealing the remaining contents in the original container. (Typically with a fresh 02 absorbing packet.)
- Resealing the remaining contents in a Mason jar or in a smaller plastic package. (Such as with a Tillia FoodSaver, available from Safecastle and several other mail order vendors.)
- Dehydrating. (We have got a lot of use out of our Excalibur dehydrator here at the ranch.)
As I describe in the Rawles Gets Your Ready Course, I recommend that most families stock up at “Big Box” stores like Costco and Sam’s Club, or at restaurant supply companies. There you can buy items like 25 pound sacks of beans and 50 pound sacks of rice. When you re-package grains and legumes at home in HDPE plastic buckets (made in sizes between 2-1/2 gallons and 7 gallons), you can save a tremendous amount on your storage food buying. Using a sealed mylar liner is recommended, since HDPE is gradually gas permeable. What you will save by doing it yourself will equate to putting away enough additional food that can be measured in extra months of storage food for your family. So it is well worth the effort.
One other option is volunteering at your local LDS church’s Bishop’s Storehouse dry pack cannery. People who are not LDS church members are generally welcome. (They’ve only excluded non-members during unusually frantic peaks, like just before Y2K.) You buy the bulk foods and empty cans from them. You provide the labor, and they provide the workspace and the can sealing equipment.