Food Storage Containers

[niel12]

Reading through the posts i must admit theres real meat on the bone there, with all sorts of sealable containers one can hardly go wrong. A few metion a vacum sealer and i want relay what i found with vacuum sealers. Off the shelf sealers very seldom achieve the vacuum one needs or want and i approached my butcher to get me a table model butchery vacuum machine. Now that's a vacuum machine you can depend on, it just about sucks all the vitamines out of the capsules! (lol) Without air meat, poultry and flour can last for very long. I have measured off enough flour, yeast, salt and sugar in one bag per loaf of bread, vacuumed it and bingo! We have plenty breads to bake in vacuumed bags These bags i freeze. It works for our tabs and pills and totally keep the moisture out. It is costly yes, but boy 'o boy it's worth it! Last but not least i found that the vacuum machine also remove the air from storaged clothing keeping them fresh and dry, suddenly you have more space on board!

[sarahwrightnow]

Originally Posted by 2divers

From another sailor (and I'm testing this theory currently at home)

Place a small piece of dry ice in the container and place the lid on but not sealed and let the dry ice submlimate. The CO2 will displace the Air and kill anything living in it. After the CO2 is gone, seal the container.
I have two glass containers in the pantry now (been going on 3 months) and I've been looking and nothing to be seen.

2divers

I believe the Pardeys do this as well, with the dry ice as mentioned in Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew.

In my galley, I store everything in Lock&Lock containers--sturdy, airtight, and their right angles (squares and rectangles, all) make for really easy, stackable storage with minimal space wasting.

Sarah

[vaha]

We use lock and lock, and for larger quantities/volume we use ziplock bags inside of old flare containers - works well for us

[JanetGroene]

Rats can gnaw through all plastics including Tupperware. Take a cat or use metal or plexiglass, preferably both.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by JanetGroene

Rats can gnaw through all plastics including Tupperware. Take a cat or use metal or plexiglass, preferably both.

No rats on my boat. Cats either.

[JanetGroene]

Originally Posted by Therapy

No rats on my boat. Cats either.

It's just a case of when. We got ours in Nassau and it took only two nights to trap it but it had already eaten through heavy plastics and boxed dry milk. Only once in ten years but it was enough.

[daddle]

Originally Posted by Therapy

No rats on my boat.

You meant "no rats yet." They swim out to the boats here. And the do chew thru any plastic container just for fun.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by daddle

You meant "no rats yet." They swim out to the boats here. And the do chew thru any plastic container just for fun.

OHHHH.

[vintageray]

I buy snacks, candies and the like from Sam's and Costco in plastic jars with screw on lids. Lots of sizes and shapes. I've been keeping rice, flour, crackers, sugar etc in these and have had no problems. Not high tech or pricey, but they do the job and don't look bad on the counter top.

[savoir]

Weevils can get through those screw on lids.

[wingNwing]

Look at foods you already buy, sometimes you can repurpose the containers. RiceSelect has nice square shapes & screw lids, and are just the right height for our lockers. Trader Joe's protein powder comes in sturdy cannisters that exactly hold 5 pounds of flour. Etc - what works for you, and is free?

Weevil eggs are already in flour and beans. Freezing for 4 days kills them. So does lots of bay leaves stored with the grain in the container. I've heard the microwave works also but don't have a microwave