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25 Year Shelf Life Emergency Food

25 Year Emergency Food A bucket of Legacy Food pouches surrounded by cooked meals

Total Prepare will help you to finalize your family’s long-term food supply with incredible 25 year emergency food. Many of our top brands include long shelf life food options in their lineups. They allow you to prepare knowing that your emergency food storage will still be ready for you if there’s an emergency, even 25 years from now. Say goodbye to rotating (or let’s be honest, throwing away) short-term food storage long past the expiration date. There is no reason to worry about rotating your food supplies when you buy 25 year shelf life food. Invest in food storage through Total Prepare so you can rest assured that your supplies are safe, secure and worry-free for 25 years.

 

How does emergency food achieve a 25 year shelf life?

Food can go bad for several reasons. Key factors in this process are: exposure to oxygen, humidity, heat, bacteria, and light. To eliminate food spoilage, manufacturers making 25 year shelf life food have to eliminate these elements to extend their food’s natural life. They do this using a few well known and useful practices detailed below.

 

Freeze Drying and Dehydrating Emergency Food

Most long shelf life emergency food is either freeze dried, dehydrated, or a mix of freeze dried and dehydrated components. Dehydrating is a simple process that is relatively straightforward: expose ingredients to hot, dry air until they dry out, minimizing moisture in the food. This is the less common method in 25 year shelf life food as it’s more difficult to get food completely moisture free with this method, and it is not as good at trapping in nutrients as freeze drying.
Freeze drying is a more complicated process that requires specialized equipment, but creates a completely moisture free end result and locks in almost all of the original vitamins and nutrients of the original ingredients.  Manufacturer’s place prepared meals/ingredients into a freeze dryer and cool them until they are completely frozen. The meals get so cold that when they’re slowly heated up in a vacuum, they don’t melt! Instead they undergo a process known as sublimation, and the ice crystals are removed from the food under low pressure. Because the temperatures involved in freeze drying remain low throughout the process, this method of preservation does very little damage to the ingredients when compared to other options.

People loading a tray of food into an industrial freeze drier

Packaging and Nitrogen Flush

Manufacturers of freeze dried food make sure their meals aren’t exposed to oxygen or light so their freeze dried food maintains its 25 year shelf life. They do this by packing their food in mylar pouches. All plastics allow minute amounts of oxygen to pass through them over time. Mylar is designed with a layer of aluminum, sandwiched between multiple layers of food-grade plastics. This reduces the amount of airflow to virtually nothing. They are also waterproof, and opaque to block out light.

Manufacturers package their freeze dried food with nitrogen. This helps flush out any oxygen that might have been remaining in the package. Nitrogen packed foods have the best shelf lives. Nitrogen is inert and will not react inside the package, while displacing any oxygen that would have adverse effects. To double check packages are free of oxygen, manufacturer’s add oxygen absorbers to their meal pouches before sealing them. Oxygen absorbers use a chemical reaction to pull any remaining oxygen from their environment and trap it.

Storage

Manufacturers do everything they can to ensure you get the most from your 25 year emergency food, but how you store the food makes a difference. Ideally, you want to store your emergency foods in a cool, dark place that doesn’t experience many temperature fluctuations. This will allow you to get the long shelf lives you’re looking for.

Can I package my own 25 year shelf life emergency food at home? mylar bag

As well as carrying the premier brands for pre-prepared emergency food storage, Total Prepare also carries mylar bags and oxygen absorbers to help you create your own food storage solutions at home. We can’t guarantee a 25 year shelf life on your emergency food if you package it at home. That being said, many people get some pretty impressive durations from their DIY setups. Dry ingredients can often be stored without a freeze dryer or other expensive equipment. This is a favourite solution for those looking to prepare on a budget. Check out our downloadable PDF guide on how to do your own food storage with these methods at home.

How does 25 year emergency food compare with other options?

Every emergency preparedness solution has its place. You need to rehydrate freeze dried emergency food with plenty of water and a way to boil it. If those things aren’t available, things like self-heating self-contained meals (MREs – or Meals Ready to Eat) are the ideal solution. If budget is a concern, calorie ration bars or DIY options come out on top.

In general, we always recommend freeze dried food for anyone wanting to prepare for more than 3 days. It’s hard to beat the variety, nutrition, and long shelf life, not to mention that freeze dried food has options that are non-GMO, and gluten free solutions for those that need them.

Summary

When you invest in food storage through Total Prepare you can rest assured that your supply will be safe, secure and worry-free for a long time. Think of the security and peace of mind that offers. Secure your long-term food storage supply today with Total Prepare and enjoy up to 25 year shelf life worry-free.

 

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