# Temperature check for Food Stored in Mylar Bags



## Down Under Prepper (Mar 18, 2020)

Hi All,

Kind of sounds silly, my Mylar bags are full and I want to know what temperature to store them at.

Setup:
Food in 7mil Mylar Bag with O2 absorber.

Several bags in a sealed plastic buckets (its 20 litres so 5 gallons?)

It is currently winter here in Australia so I am not concerned about my stored food being stored in 6-12 degree heat. But as it is getting closer to summer it will get upto 35 degrees celsius which I would imagine is too hot.

I have about 30-40 of the plastic buckets so they take up a fairly considerable space. My attic would probably reach >35 degrees (the temperature of the room where they are currently stored).

Does anyone have any experience with storing them under their house? Does anyone know what the ambient temperature under a house is? Does anyone have any suggestions for me at all please 

Cheers


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Welcome to PF. 

You should be courteous enough to introduce yourself. At least you didn't start out trying to sell something..........:vs_no_no_no:

I'd store food stuffs in the cellar. It's cool there summer and don't freeze winter. I also have a root cellar, but you can figure out what gets stored there.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

You want it as cool as possible. The dryer & cooler, the longer it stores. I have a purpose built room for my stores, with its own built in air conditioner, that never gets warmer than 65 Fahrenheit or around 18 Celsius.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

******* said:


> You want it as cool as possible. The dryer & cooler, the longer it stores. I have a purpose built room for my stores, with its own built in air conditioner, that never gets warmer than 65 Fahrenheit or around 18 Celsius.


+1 on dryer and cooler.

Too much $$$ to run an air conditioner for dry food room here, I don't even use one for me!

My cellar always stays cool. Keep my freezer down there too. Dried stuff is well sealed for moisture and goes into a food grade metal drum that is insect and vermin proof. Cellar never sees 70 oF summer, sometimes 30s oF winter, as wood heat is upstairs (but then it's << O oF outside).


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Mad Trapper said:


> Too much $$$ to run an air conditioner for dry food room here, I don't even use one for me!
> 
> My cellar always stays cool. Keep my freezer down there too. Dried stuff is well sealed for moisture and goes into a food grade metal drum that is insect and vermin proof. Cellar never sees 70 oF summer, sometimes 30s oF winter, as wood heat is upstairs (but then it's << O oF outside).


Come live in Mississippi in the summer and I bet you will find the money for air conditioning.


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## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

temperature isn't the only consideration for storage of mylar/02 absorber storage units >>> those packages are absorbing the air from their outside environment - bad air == tainted food ...

to answer your question - common problem in the air uncirculated basement/cellar is a "musty" small - you food will taint to that "smelly feet" taste ...

you also need to be uber careful about storage with any fuels, chems and pesticides/urbicides - plenty of prepper tales about fuel oil flour and oatmeal from storing near the furnace fuel tank ...


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

******* said:


> Come live in Mississippi in the summer and I bet you will find the money for air conditioning.


I've got a cot in the cellar, a screen porch, and will put on a wet t-shirt and sit in front of a fan (almost as cool as AC IMHO).

It's going into the 90s oF here today with dewpoints in the 70s, that's hot for here. You guys send that up here?

There is a small ice cold stream, that comes off a mountain, it has a swimming hole 10' deep in a shaded hemlock hollow. It's full of native brook trout too. Might pay that location a visit today and have a cold malt beverage. :tango_face_grin:

If the hippie girls show up, with their hairy pits and "free ranging swingers", I hope they have not went Antifa. :crying:


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Illini Warrior said:


> temperature isn't the only consideration for storage of mylar/02 absorber storage units >>> those packages are absorbing the air from their outside environment - bad air == tainted food ...
> 
> to answer your question - common problem in the air uncirculated basement/cellar is a "musty" small - you food will taint to that "smelly feet" taste ...
> 
> you also need to be uber careful about storage with any fuels, chems and pesticides/urbicides - plenty of prepper tales about fuel oil flour and oatmeal from storing near the furnace fuel tank ...


If you vacuum seal, packages will be nearly 100% air tight, then inside a secondary container I don't see a problem. My root cellar is in same basement and I have oil backup heat, never had an oil leak and I still have edible potatoes, onions, and garlic from last summer/fall, lots more things over the winter. They all are starting to sprout but about zero rot. None of that stuff is sealed, it needs to breath in storage. Stuff stored in my refrigerator with an old piece of fish is worse.

My basement stays dry and never had a sewage backup. I'd worry then


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## paulag1955 (Dec 15, 2019)

Mad Trapper said:


> +1 on dryer and cooler.
> 
> Too much $$$ to run an air conditioner for dry food room here, I don't even use one for me!
> 
> My cellar always stays cool. Keep my freezer down there too. Dried stuff is well sealed for moisture and goes into a food grade metal drum that is insect and vermin proof. Cellar never sees 70 oF summer, sometimes 30s oF winter, as wood heat is upstairs (but then it's << O oF outside).


Not everyone has a cellar. In fact, cellars may be a regional thing. In the PNW, we see a lot of crawl space and slab construction, and daylight basements.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

paulag1955 said:


> Not everyone has a cellar. In fact, cellars may be a regional thing. In the PNW, we see a lot of crawl space and slab construction, and daylight basements.


Yep, almost no basements or cellars in the south.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

******* said:


> Yep, almost no basements or cellars in the south.


Unless it's water table I don't see why. No frost in ground?

Are historic 150-200 year old homes without basements too?

I don't like plumbing but it's nice to work on pipes in a basement rather than a crawl space.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Mad Trapper said:


> Unless it's water table I don't see why. No frost in ground?
> 
> Are historic 150-200 year old homes without basements too?
> 
> I don't like plumbing but it's nice to work on pipes in a basement rather than a crawl space.


My understanding is has to do with the wet, clay soil. What few basements I've heard of always have issues with water coming in. Almost all homes are built on a slab. Not many 150 year old homes around here. Yankees burnt most.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

******* said:


> My understanding is has to do with the wet, clay soil. What few basements I've heard of always have issues with water coming in. Almost all homes are built on a slab. Not many 150 year old homes around here. Yankees burnt most.


My soil here is loam but it's glacial deposit mixed in with plenty of rocks and ledge is close below in some spots. Some places too many rocks to till + LARGE rocks, others places like my garden loam is 4' deep, but it "grows" rocks every time I plow it.. Many rocks in fields/pastures, me and my tractor know where they are. I'm on a hill so water table is much below.

How about cellar holes? We've got lots of these, some up in the overgrown woods. Center hearth homes that had huge central fireplace, some were early 1700s. Those cellar holes have a huge pile of stone in the center from the chimney, all had root cellars. I usually find a barn cellar and old dug wells nearby. Some of the wells still have good water. I need to get a metal detector...........

I have interest in old timberframe buildings, I started to learn from a master timberframe builder, Dick Babcock, before he passed away. He had found/restored buildings from 1600s. I can do layout from a log to square timber with M/T joinery with only a plumb bob, chalk line, and divider/compass. No tapes squares etc ... the old way

Here's Dick putting up a barn (with permission of the author)

















Jack Sobon learned TF from Dick

Sorry if I hijacked thread....


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

I've found it necessary to run a dehumidifier in my extended panty in the cellar. It's cool, but not as dry as I would've wished it to be.


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## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

Mad Trapper said:


> If you vacuum seal, packages will be nearly 100% air tight, then inside a secondary container I don't see a problem. My root cellar is in same basement and I have oil backup heat, never had an oil leak and I still have edible potatoes, onions, and garlic from last summer/fall, lots more things over the winter. They all are starting to sprout but about zero rot. None of that stuff is sealed, it needs to breath in storage. Stuff stored in my refrigerator with an old piece of fish is worse.
> 
> My basement stays dry and never had a sewage backup. I'd worry then


wouldn't have posted it if it wasn't a proven fact - plenty of preppers have had the unfortunate experience and lost a good part of their food prep >>> not going to bother with scientific explanation involving the 02 absorber - it's take it or leave it proposition - it's a warning to the cautious ....


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Illini Warrior said:


> wouldn't have posted it if it wasn't a proven fact - plenty of preppers have had the unfortunate experience and lost a good part of their food prep >>> not going to bother with scientific explanation involving the 02 absorber - it's take it or leave it proposition - it's a warning to the cautious ....


I'm open.

Tell me the scientific explanation.

But I'm a scientist.......

Edit: i believe proper sealing and storing materials are the issues. If you put material under hi-vac there is not much O2 around, then a container that does not leak O2.

Is this an issue with canned foods? I do add citric , or ascorbic acids to some foods to lower PH. They are both anti-oxidants that prevent fruit browning and lower PH for safe canning. It's not because of oxygen in the can. Canning does boil off most dissolved gasses, including O2. Listen to your tea kettle, as it comes to boiling, that's gases boiling off, before the water boils.

I used to work with stuff that would crap the bed with a wiff of air, so what do i know........


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