Long term food storage...is this good?

[ButterflyBreath]

Hi guys. Looking at food storage and found this at Costco.

http://www.costco.com/380-Total-Serv....11748485.html

For all you survival experts...can you see anything wrong with this type of rice or method of storage? I am just learning about this.

Thanks

[ButterflyBreath]

Even better... Brown rice!
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/augason...prod6230881.ip

[awakenedsoul]

It sounds expensive to me. You can get those types of buckets at feed stores. I buy rice in bulk and freeze it. It says the one you listed has a seven year shelf life, unopened. It might go bad if you are using it. (I think you mentioned you live alone.)
Rice is cheap. I think this is really overpriced.

[happystuff]

I agree about it being expensive. 43 lbs brown rice for approx. $53.00 plus shipping? That's over $1. a pound. Couldn't open the link in the 1st post.

[Blackdog Lin]

I agree with awakenedsoul: overpriced for what you can do yourself.

Now brown rice, while much more healthy, does not keep anywhere nearly as well/long as a white rice. So if you really need to store brown, you may want to pay extra for professional processing, and no matter how you put it up be very very good at rotating your stocks.

But white rice: it keeps a very long time. In March of '09 I put away many pounds of both regular long-grain and basmati rices. We sealed up 2-lb. packages in our seal-a-meal and popped an oxygen absorber into each. Stored in a plastic tote in a closet.

Come this year I decide to start using the stuff up. We can't tell the difference in this "old" rice from rice purchased yesterday at the grocery store. There is truly no difference at all. Our cheapo method of long-term storage is working exceedingly well.

We had the same results with all our dried beans, and most of the pasta I put up - all done the same way, and all tastes and cooks up fresh as ever here 5 years later. The only minor problem I had was with some of the pasta that "lost its seal" during the storage period. It still cooked up and tastes fine, but I know I lost my oxygen barrier on some of the packages (the packages had gone soft, rather than rock-hard like all the other packages). I figure these few "failures" were due to sharp edges on some of the dried pasta.

[ButterflyBreath]

I think I was just overwhelmed with all the food storage info on the Internet. I am blessed with a 3rd shift job where I have a lot of free time and can use my iPad, so I've been researching and am starting to do price comparisons for DIY food storage with Mylar bags and O2 absorbers. Maybe if I get really motivated I can post my price comparisons so others can take a look at it.

[happystuff]

That would be great! Thanks.

[iris lilies]

I agree with awakenedsoul: overpriced for what you can do yourself.

Now brown rice, while much more healthy, does not keep anywhere nearly as well/long as a white rice...

I had no idea. That's interesting. I would think that the hull on a grain would protect it from breaking down. I wonder what the science is behind this.

[Blackdog Lin]

"•Brown rice is a whole natural grain with only the hull removed, thus the fats between the remaining layers cause it to spoil more easily than white, which has been milled and stripped of all it’s layers and nutrients. Enriched rice has some of the nutrients chemically returned, but brown rice naturally retains almost all of the nutrients. Brown rice is also chewier and nuttier in flavor because of these natural layers.
•Due to its low moisture content, white rice can keep almost indefinitely. This extended shelf life is a huge benefit to underdeveloped countries."

iris lilies: you got me to wondering too, so I googled it. This quote I found was the easiest for me to understand. I've just always known, since the days I started "prepping", that white rice was the way to go for long-term storage. I had never researched the why.

[awakenedsoul]

I glanced at the white rice at Costco the other day. You can get a big bag for around $5.00. I have a bucket like that from our feed store. It had dog food in it, but I washed it out. They gave it to me for free. I just paid for the dog food.

Good to know about the white rice. I have a big bag of it in my freezer. I use brown rice most of the time.