Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Storing Shelf Stable Meals May Prove To Be A Wise Idea

By Mona Moody


With rising food costs, people all over the world are buying shelf stable meals. These are foods that can be stored for a long period of time. Sometimes they can be kept for up to 12 months. These types of foods are especially good for people who do not have refrigerators in which they can freeze things.

One will often find that there are good prices on such foods on the super market, which is when buying these items is a good idea. Many people do not live in or near cities and find themselves only going to the city for stocks every three months or so. Such foods have been processed and developed to maintain a long shelf life.

One would be well advised to buy in these items for your family in cases of an emergency. Should you live in a remote village or ranch, you would be wise to keep a variety of these items in your pantry. There are many different meals available, catering to the fussiest of taste-buds, and in most cases they carry a long shelf life.

If you stock canned food in your pantry, it is a good idea to keep rotating them. When you buy in more of the product, it is best to keep the old ones in front so that they get eaten first. If you keep rotating them you will undoubtedly be getting the fresher ones in all the time, even though they may be months old. Most of these foods can last for up to 6 months. Foods in cans, thin plastic and air tight containers can usually be stored for a number of months.

Numerous preservation and packing techniques are used on foods nowadays making them stable. Decreasing the amount of water in a product or increasing the acidity can all be used in prolonging the life of food without unacceptably changing it taste. These are all ways in which the shelf life of a product can be increased, sometimes for up to 150 days.

Reading the labels on food is very important nowadays. Doing this will tell you how long you can store it for. The label will tell you how the food was packed and preserved. These days you even get fresh milk that has a shelf life of up to thirty days. Something to bear in mind though is that most foods need to be consumed within 7 days after opening. This goes for all long life products as well.

Emergency experts advise that every family have a stock of up to three days of food. These would be foods with a long shelf life. They can include canned meat and tuna, sun dried tomatoes and fruit, canned fruit and vegetables, chow mein noodles, rice cakes, pretzels, rice, cereals and other goods too. One is advised to have at least 3 gallons of fresh water available at any given time.

You should also have up to 12 servings of fruit, up to 15 servings of vegetables, up to 9 servings of fish, meat and dry beans as well as 12 servings of yogurt, milk or other cereals as part of your shelf stable meals. All these foods should have a shelf life of 3 months or longer. You are well advised to have a stock of these items in your pantry in case of an emergency.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment