# Storing rice and beans in juice jugs



## calico25275 (May 14, 2015)

Hi! Newbie here with a question about storing rice and beans in washed and bleached juice jugs. Will they keep and do I need to use o2 absorbers in them. How long will they stay good? Does Minute rice keep as well as regular rice?


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## Marcus (May 13, 2012)

Permeability of containers vary according to wall thickness and the material. Any kind of retail packaging is designed for a limited life span. As a test, take a sealed retail bottle of water and leave it on a counter. In less than a year, it will have partially collapsed even though it was in a climate controlled area.

Mylar bags are used since they offer better protection in a lightweight container that also blocks sunlight. Mason jars are another alternative though they are more expensive and require storage in a dark place. Do you need O2 absorbers? Yes or use liquid Nitrogen to displace the air.

Minute rice does not keep as well as regular rice. As a rule, you will get longer storage times with foods that are left in their natural husks/shells.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

> Storing rice and beans in juice jugs


The regular rice and plain beans will keep a very long in those hard clear containers (five years minimum and likely much longer). I have used them for rice for many years.


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## IlliniWarrior (Nov 30, 2010)

second time in a week this stupidity pops up .... a blogger actually wrote an entire article about it - claiming it was long term storage 

I'll take a different tack .... take an educated look at the soda bottle plastic .... now look at the poly retail bag that your dry goods came in .... how much difference do you see in that poly film thickness? .... not much if any .... what exactly do you think you're gaining in storage longevity by sqeezing those beans into a bottle? .... waste an 02 absorber on such bs - double dumb


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## IlliniWarrior (Nov 30, 2010)

Marcus said:


> Permeability of containers vary according to wall thickness and the material. Any kind of retail packaging is designed for a limited life span. As a test, take a sealed retail bottle of water and leave it on a counter. In less than a year, it will have partially collapsed even though it was in a climate controlled area.
> 
> Mylar bags are used since they offer better protection in a lightweight container that also blocks sunlight. Mason jars are another alternative though they are more expensive and require storage in a dark place. Do you need O2 absorbers? *Yes or use liquid Nitrogen to displace the air.
> *
> Minute rice does not keep as well as regular rice. As a rule, you will get longer storage times with foods that are left in their natural husks/shells.


I hate to see this recommendation on the regular prepper websites .... it gives people ideas that they shouldn't be touching with a 10 foot pole .... I get the willys when I see the old dry ice method mentioned - that hurts enough people ....

the DIYers should stick to the 02 absorbers only .... much eazier & safer - *** plus *** alot more effective ....


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## LastOutlaw (Jun 1, 2013)

I prefer the mylar bags purchased off the LDS web site. Much thicker than any I've bought from Amazon. I've also used canning jars for fruits and veggies that were dehydrated. I put the dried items in jars for a couple weeks to check for moisture. If I see any I remove and dehydrate more. If no moisture evident after a couple of weeks I'll throw in an o2 absorber, seal and close in a cardboard box to block light then store.

Also...Do Not try to store flour. Doesn't keep long. Store wheat berry instead then grind to flour as needed.
Wheat berry has been found in Eqypt that was still good after thousands of years.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

> Wheat berry has been found in Eqypt that was still good after thousands of years.


Had they stored it in mylar?


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## Marcus (May 13, 2012)

IlliniWarrior said:


> I hate to see this recommendation on the regular prepper websites .... it gives people ideas that they shouldn't be touching with a 10 foot pole .... I get the willys when I see the old dry ice method mentioned - that hurts enough people ....
> 
> the DIYers should stick to the 02 absorbers only .... much eazier & safer - *** plus *** alot more effective ....


It depends on a person's experience level and their common sense.

I was handling liquid Nitrogen in my job in high school so I have a healthy *respect* for it and what it can do. A person also has to have a proper cryogenic storage container for transport and short term storage along with the proper PPE. I don't know what current prices are, but it used to be ~50 cents/pound which is competitive with the O2 absorbers. It's really only useful in larger containers like 5 gallon buckets and only when a person is putting up 10 or more of those. Otherwise you're wasting more than you're using.

Edit: One of the reasons to use Nitrogen over O2 absorbers is the ambient pressure inside the container. O2 absorbers cause a partial vacuum which is why air will migrate in through the walls or seals of the container. Properly done, Nitrogen just displaces the ambient atmosphere with little or no increase in pressure. That means a slight overpressure in the container will migrate out and not allow air in.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

If these juice bottles are glass that is best as it is not permeable. If you are using the plastic juice bottles because they are free they will work as well. You might also consider the two to four gallon buckets that are usually available for free in the bakery department of the grocery stores. The plastic is thicker than your bottles so O2 transfer through the walls of the bucket should be slower. Make sure that you get the lids for them as they have a gasket. 

The 3.5 gallon bucket lids fit a five gallon bucket so if you need a gasketed lid for a five gallon bucket there is a free source.


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## millertimedoneright (May 13, 2013)

All depends on the intended use. Many people make things more difficult than it has to be. Long term storage most food grade plastics will store things like beans and rice just fine. If looking for very long term storage switch to glass. I personally like to rotate the stored foods out every so often anyways to prevent waste and keep my storage fresh. My biggest issues starting out were first and foremost before worrying about gadgets and gizmos to increase storage life you should be concerned with the basics such as making sure the product to be stored is clean and completely dry. Just a small damp amount will ruin the whole container.


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

Since we live in modern times I will recommend food grade containers ,if you are buying bulk once open the entire contents will be expose to air, so for the long run you can re-pack in smaller portions in vacuum bags then seal in bigger container , a lot of work just for beans and rice. As a child in the country we used to get everything in big burlap bags then they went into the granary, actually it was our root cellar only the grains where put in a elevated floor for air circulation the daily used grains, sugar and salt were in heavy pottery jars or amphora’s and like hiwall mention, they have been around well before I was born, just make sure you have a pressure cooker handy because beans tend to get hard as they get older.


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## Marcus (May 13, 2012)

*millertime* brought up a very good point about the intended usage that most of us missed.

When it comes to food storage, I automatically default to the LDS time frames which are generally in the 20-30 year range and my earlier posts are geared towards that.

But if you're just starting out, as the OP is, using juice jugs is probably a good idea as a way to build up food inventory without spending extra money on unneeded supplies. If the OP intends to use the rice and beans within a reasonable time frame (<5 years), he'll probably be okay as long as everything is dry and kept in a dark temperature controlled area. Once you go beyond 5 years though, I'd want to take the extra precautions.

My advice about *not* using Minute rice still holds. I can't remember the exact storage life of Minute rice, but 1 to 2 years pops into my head.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

.
2-liter (and other sizes) soda bottles work great, as do the juice jugs. 

The cap is different type plastic, though - it is the weak point.


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