Rice in a Bucket

[mishbloom]

Question for anyone....

 

I got 2 20# bags of rice at Walmart today, along with 2 5-gallon buckets to store them in. For the moment, I just left them in their plastic bags and stuck them in the buckets.

 

Will they keep alright like this? Or do I need to switch them out to mylar bags? (I have no idea how to do this, so please either include directions or point me in the right direction please! Thanks.)

 

[Ambergris]

Mish, I had some rice I stored in the plastic bags inside a bucket, and when I opened it the rice smelled of plastic bag. Opened some beans in similar bags, and got the same smell. Somewhat like when people microwave food on a styrofoam plate and the plate starts melting a little. That might be a fluke, since I got them at the same place and stored them the same day, but I have always since taken beans and rice out of those plastic bags.

 

Plain white rice keeps pretty well, really. Unless you sealed your bucket on a rainy/muggy day or got bugs in it, you should be fine. Also, if you pour loose rice into the bucket, you should get just about five pounds short of your forty pounds into a single bucket. That five pounds can go into "ordinary groceries" or be the start of a new bucket.

 

If you got brown rice, you'll need to find a cool place to store it, like under the back porch if you have one.

[ATHagan]

Originally Posted By: mishbloom

Will they keep alright like this? Or do I need to switch them out to mylar bags? (I have no idea how to do this, so please either include directions or point me in the right direction please! Thanks.)

How long do you need the rice to stay in good condition and what is the temperature and humidity like in the storage are you'll be keeping the buckets in?

Provided the humidity wasn't really high at the time you sealed up the buckets that rice will keep as-is for a couple of years. With no other form of preservative packaging you'd be well served to freeze treat the rice after you packed it in the bucket as a weevil precaution.

If you need to keep the rice for longer than two years I'd fumigate it with dry ice, vac-seal it, or pack it in aluminized Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers (one of the above, not all of them). Any one of those methods will keep your rice in good condition for many years.

If you have a cool, dry basement that is an ideal storage environment and will prolong the usable life of any properly packaged foods.

I explain how to use freeze treating, dry ice fumigation, vac-sealing, or packing in Mylar with oxygen absorbers in the Prudent Food Storage FAQ which is free to read or download via the URL in my signature below.

.....Alan.

[mishbloom]

*smiles and blows kisses to both of you*

 

Excellent! Alan, I'll be sneaking around your website for weeks. *bookmarks*

 

I'm in Eastern PA, and it does get very humid here. But it's been very nice here the last couple of weeks (still spring--I wouldn't seal ANYTHING in the summer!), so I think I'll freeze them for insects (we do this with flour too) and let it go.

 

Thanks!

[westbrook]

related links

 

http://www.mrssurvival.com/forums/ubbthrea...&gonew=1#UNREAD