I am new here and excited to finally be able to ask a question I have wondered for some time now. I only have two in my family and I haven't wanted to pack grains in buckets until recently. I have lots of quart jars and have packed the usual dry food in them. I have the jars in 72 degrees with almost no light. My question is this: if I vacuum seal the quart jars (with Foodsaver) and put in a 500 cc oxygen absorber, will anything bad happen, like will the jar break? My food is currently vacuum sealed but I am thinking the oxy. absorbers will make it last longer. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.
A good question I shouldn't think that the O2 absorbers would add to the vacuum and produce more pressure on the glass than the glass can handle. I would think that the O2 absorbers work on a similar principle to blood liquid absorbers in supermarket meat packs, just removing o2 from the atmosphere available to the food being stored so that it doesn't spoil as soon as it might if the O2 was freely available to micro organisms that may cause spoilage. If you have any concerns...trial 1 jar first as a test, and see how it goes, before doing a bulk storage production run. A good question....and welcome to the Forum. The only silly question is the question that should have been asked and wasn't, because one might appear foolish in the asking.
O2 absorbers will pull a vacuum, you'll see them suck the sides of plastic buckets inward, or make a well sealed mylar bag rock hard.....but no way they will pull enough to hurt a glass jar....many, many times the strength of a plastic bucket. The temperature is the most critical part of your post. For every 10 degrees you lower the average storage temp, the food life doubles.....so if you can find a cooler place to store them, like a basement, do so.
Thanks for the replies!! Thank you all for the replies. I think I will experiment with the oxygen absorbers in the jars and see what happens. I will let you know. TnAndy, I appreciate your good advice about temperature but I am doing good to get to 72 degrees because I live in Florida and most of us don't have basements and it's hot here. Being an "older" person, I think my food storage may outlive me but I love learning new things about survival and new ways to prepare. I am learning alot here. Thanks again!!!
The glass should easily be strong enough to handle the vacuum. You should se a good seal on the lid when you do this. Sharpshooter
I regularly store the unused portion of oxygen absorbers in a small mason jar. Just pop the little red pill in there so you can see it, and seal the jar up good. I lost a small batch once because I didn't use a ring over the lid. Use the ring.
Rather than use Oxygen absorbers, most bigger storage systems just flood the containers with Nitrogen, from a Pressure Bottle, and then seal the container. You can get the Bottles from any Welding Supply House. Nitrogen is cheaper than dirt, and works well for LONG Term Storage, if the seal is done well.
you can do it your self with a vacuum pump (most piston air pumps will pull a good vacuum if you put a fitting on the air input to the pump) and a suction cup and some soft rubber sheeting cut into small squares. Pump and Seal food saver vacuum sealer is better than Tilia FoodSaver look at the video and see how they use small rubber seals on a bit of tape, it is easy to make with silicone tape Silicone Tape - Harman Corporation I had some that was left over from a job, and a suction cup 1.5" across works well. I cut a hole in the center of the suction cup and pushed it onto a hand vacuum pump (automotive store sell them to bleed brake lines) and then you use a push pin to put a home into the lid of the jar ( any work if metal and have a good seal) put a small square of silicon tape over the hole and push the suction cup down over and pump, I go to 20 to 25" of vacuum. when you remove the suction cup the vacuum inside the jar will pull the seal down and seal the jar. to open just peal the silicone tape off and the jar is easy to open. the lid can be reused many times. to see if it is holding a vacuum, most jar lids have the "pop" top that will not pop if there is a vacuum inside. check the next day for bad seals on the lids. this is very good for things that you get into every so often and for things that get compressed into an brick from a powder if put into a vacuum bag.
The glass jars will be fine. I'm not sure it's necessary to use a vacume sealer and the O2 absorbers. The absorbers will do a good enough job on their own. For that matter the vacume sealer alone would probably be sufficient depending on what kind of dry goods you are storing. Foods like rice and beans can last several years with minimal to no preperation as it is.
