Mylar bags for long term storage

[Grumpy Old Man]

I am a member of some other prepping related forums. On most of them, mylar bags are touted as the only way to package for long term storage. I've followed this "conventional wisdom", but with the price for mylar bags being what it is, I'm wondering if this is truly necessary. All of these sites have either advertisers or associated stores that sell mylar bags. I guess that my cynicism is coming out because I don't see why my regular vacuum sealer bags wouldn't work in buckets.

Is this just a marketing ploy or is the use of mylar bags a necessity? Any input you all might have would be appreciated. I cringe at paying $1/bag, but on the other hand I don't want to jeopardize my LTS foods.

[The Stig]

Totally unfounded and wild speculation but are the mylar bags stronger and more puncture resistant than a plain ziploc bag? Just a guess really.

[bacpacker]

From what I've seen mylar does hold up better. I've used the "food saver" type material and it just don't seen as durable to me. That said I have zero info to back up that statement. I do agree with you, mylar is what "everybody" talks about.

[AlphaTea]

Is this just a marketing ploy or is the use of mylar bags a necessity? Any input you all might have would be appreciated. I cringe at paying $1/bag, but on the other hand I don't want to jeopardize my LTS foods.
It is not a necessity.
It is a very good idea though. Mylar is quite a bit heavier than foodsaver bags. It is easier to fill and seal 5 gallons of beans in one 20X30 mylar bag. It takes less time and you can get more in the bucket. Over the years, folks have just about reinvented the wheel over the best way to do LTS. There is a reason most folks do it that way.
Where are you finding bags at $1?

[Grumpy Old Man]

While I cant get a 20"x30" bag for that price from any of the Prep Suppliers, I can get a case of 18"x28.5" from Sorbent Systems for ~ $250. That is 300 bags at about $0.81 each. That one is not listed as food grade and is only 4.3 mils. Other food grade bags in smaller sizes are considerably cheaper. That would be my choice as 50 lbs of beans will last me quite a while. These guys have all kinds of stuff useful for storage and prepping. I'll leave it to your investigations at the site. Mylar® Bags - SorbentSystems.com (http://www.sorbentsystems.com/mylar.html). The one thing I can caution all about when purchasing from specialty supply stores is that no one is in business for their health, they are in business to make a profit. I always try to cut out the middleman, whether I'm buying for my company or myself.

[AlphaTea]

I agree that is cheaper per bag, but you probably don't need 300 bags.
At USA Emergency Supply (https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/emergency_supplies/mylar_food_storage_bags.htm) you wont need to buy so many. You can get a case (150) 20x30 5mil for $160, STILL have more bags that you will ever need AND have $90 left to buy more beans. If you buy less than case quantity they range from $1.41 to $1.31 per bag. They have other sizes too.
There are other places out there too. I usually only get 5 or 10 at a time and buy quantity when i find them on sale.
YMMV

[pitbullnga]

keep in mind with mylar bags you can cut them if needed and seal them with a hot iron provided shtf you can reuse your mylar and heat the iron on the fire and use the mylar for smaller storage

[Fatty]

What kind of shelf life do beans an such have when sealed in such a way? I'm pulling the trigger on 10 Mylar bags myself but haven't decided what I want to store in them yet. I would prefer to pick something that's known to keep for a longer period of time.

[JustAPrepper]

I found this old thread and thought I'd give some input...

Almost all of our Rice, Beans and Grains are packaged in Mylar and Food Grade buckets. We've purchased our Mylar from several sources including Sorbent Systems, USA Emergency, Emergency Essentials and I think Honeyville. All various sizes and thicknesses, depending on what we were packaging. On occassion we find one that's bad. Some had pinholes in them and a few had bad seams and things needed to be repackaged. Now, before we pack anything we test them by standing in a dark room at night and shining a flashlight through them. The flashlight will allow light to come out any pin holes or seams that aren't sealed properly. We have a prepper friend that tested his by using water but then he had to wait days for the bags to completely dry. The flashlight works best for us.

[bacpacker]

Great idea on testing them. Could be a huge money saver there.

[Sparrow]

If mylar bags are 1 buck a bag, doesn't it make more sense to put stuff in 'regular' bags ... then in a 7$ bin?

I mean, rodents are so not going to care about those expensive bags ... nommm nommm

[ladyhk13]

We have a "commercial" vacuum machine and use regular food saver bags. I normally have no problem with them puncturing or not sealing properly...if I do, it's usually due to operator error. If you are using mylar you do need to make sure it's food grade. Just like if you are going to store food in buckets without any bags (just putting the food in them) they also need to be food grade, if not the toxins from the plastic will leach into your food.
I put rice, noodles, sugar and even flour in my food saver bags. The ones that come with my machine don't even work as good as the ones you can buy in bulk at sam's or costco (a green box). We use them for all of our bulk meats as well.

[Sniper-T]

I too use the traditional vacu-sealer bags, with a pro series vac. I then store these in 30 gallon steel drums. I empty/replace everything in the barrels about every 6 months... as in open them up, put the newest stuff in the back (bottom), and rotate it through, with the oldest available coming into the pantry. I am currently rotating out some of my original Ziplock storage bags of rice/pasta from 4-5 years ago, with no smell or freshness issues. Everything tastes as fresh as new.

I have piles of homemade MRE's that I'm making and storing too (lasagne/Chili/Stroghanoff, etc) that are also stored in Ziplocks. I don't know if they'll stand the test of time for true LTS (10-20 year), but for mid-term, they've been serving fine. The oldest Vacu sealed anything I have is less than 2 years... but they seem to be holding vaccuum well, and I open the odd one of something as a test. They seem to be fine as well