Vacuum sealing beans and rice in plastic??

[samhill777]

Hello - brand new to this neat forum!! :D

I read a previous post here about vacuum sealing dried goods in glass jars....but how about in plastic bags? We wanted to buy in bulk (again), and dont want to throw half of it away (again).....so how about vacuum sealing in plastic bags? I'm specifically referring to beans and rice.

I realize the bags have to be protected from vermin, of course, but how long can one expect to store dry goods in plastic? Also, any special considerations to take into account? We live on the coast if that makes any difference.

Thanks very much!
samhill777

[MadTripper]

I would think that as long as the vacuum pressure remains in tact, they will last as long as a glass container. Like you mentioned, ensuring mice and so on don't break the seal is an added concern but not too difficult to accomplish.

Regardless of what type of container you use, you are accomplishing the same thing which is proven to retain freshness for a longer duration than traditional storage methods.

Tripper

[Shamrock1121]

Hello - brand new to this neat forum!! * :D

I read a previous post here about vacuum sealing dried goods in glass jars....but how about in plastic bags? *We wanted to buy in bulk (again), and dont want to throw half of it away (again).....so how about vacuum sealing in plastic bags? *I'm specifically referring to beans and rice.

I realize the bags have to be protected from vermin, of course, but how long can one expect to store dry goods in plastic? *Also, any special considerations to take into account? *We live on the coast if that makes any difference.

Thanks very much!
samhill777

Samhill -

The FoodSaver web site says "dry goods" are good for 2 years vacuum-sealed.

The reason I use jars, and vacuum-seal the lids on them for storage, they are reusable and cheaper in the long run than the plastic bags; and it's a good use for 1/2-gallon jars. Full jars take up the same amount of space on shelves as do empty ones.

But saying that, I have rice/grain/beans vacuum-sealed in some bags as well, but you have to check them periodically. A sharp piece of grain can eventually pierce the bag and there goes your seal....and it's expensive having to replace the bag. I usually transfer grain stored in plastic bags to a jar, once they are opened. Old storage bags tend to get easily pierced if you reseal them over and over. So if you use bags, only store user-friendly amounts in them.

I wouldn't store more beans than you can use in a years time. No matter how cheap they were to purchase in bulk, wasted food is always expensive.

Old beans get bitter and take much longer to cook the older they get. If you have old beans, they work best milled into flour; and as long as they aren't too bitter-tasting, use them for adding to breads, or making into "instant" soup recipes. For older pinto beans, mill them into flour and make "instant" refried beans with them. You can mill black beans into flour and make refried beans with them, as well. Bean flour is quicker than cooking whole beans.

Good books about using milled bean flour:

"The NEW Passport to Survival", "Country Beans", and "Meals In Minutes", all by Rita Bingham

You can tell old pinto beans from new ones by the color. New pinto beans are light brown, and the older they get, they get much darker.

Only keep white rice for long storage. Brown rice just doesn't have long storage capabilities.

I personally use small white beans for bean flour more than cooked into navy bean soup. Small white beans have a mild flavor, so are easier to add to baked goods to increase the fiber and protein.

Hard grains have a much longer shelf life. I just used up some wheat from 2004 and some corn I'd forgotten about that was 2002 (got lost in our last move). Both were stored in vacuum-sealed bags.

-Karen

[samhill777]

Hi Karen - thanks so much for the great reply. Just what I was hoping for. I dont even own a vacuum packer yet but was going to the big city this week and might pick one up. Never used one yet. Great to know about differences with beans and rice. Do you think brown rice would store the 2 years in vacuum? I dont really have any jars, so that's why I emphasized the bags.
Thanks again, and thanks too to the first responder.

[Faye]

I don't own a vacumn sealer but my argument for glass jars would be because plastic is made with petroleum. I use glass almost exclusively for everything. As the plastic I have gets old it is replaced with glass.

[Shamrock1121]

Hi Karen - thanks so much for the great reply. *Just what I was hoping for. *I dont even own a vacuum packer yet but was going to the big city this week and might pick one up. *Never used one yet. *Great to know about differences with beans and rice. *Do you think brown rice would store the 2 years in vacuum? *I dont really have any jars, so that's why I emphasized the bags.
Thanks again, and thanks too to the first responder.

Check thrift stores (DAV, Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.) and garage sales for used wide-mouth jars at a discount price. Don't get regular-mouth (the smaller of the two), the FoodSaver won't seal them. I used to have a special regular-mouth attachment, but that was 20 years and 3 FoodSavers ago. Ask around to your "older" friends. You'll find someone with a box (or 12) of them in the basement they'd just LOVE to give you. Us "older" folks just hate to get rid of a perfectly good canning jar. ;)

Check Big Lots and Tuesday Morning for low-priced FoodSaver vacuum sealers. I've never owned any other kind. I'm not sure if other brands will seal the flats on canning jars?

Make sure you run your finger over the lip of the (used) jars to make sure there are no nicks/chips in the glass. The flats won't seal properly unless the lip of the jar is nice and smooth. Then you will require enough flats to use with a FoodSaver vacuum sealer, for the number of jars you will be using. You'll find the investment in canning jars, even new ones, is cheaper than using the plastic bags. You'll also need new, not used, flats (found in most stores where they stock canning equipment). These seal best if you soak them in warm water and dry thoroughly before you use them. It helps the sealant to soften so that it seals easily.

Not all FoodSavers come with a jar attachment, but they can be purchased separately.

You'll need the plastic bags for successfully vacuum-sealing foods for the freezer. Meat keeps MUCH longer if it's vacuum-sealed.

Personally, I never store brown rice for longer than 6 months, and I keep it vacuum-sealed in a freezer. I use a 6-month length of time because you have no idea how old the rice is to begin with. You have no idea what condition it has been warehoused - or at what temperature - before you purchased it.

I won't purchase brown rice that wasn't kept in the refrigerator. The facts about rancid fats - they are a dangerous free-radicals, which cause more damage to the body than the "good" from consuming the brown rice. Rancid fats don't have to smell rancid to BE rancid. If it smells rancid, it's been degrading and going rancid for quite awhile.

Here's some information I posted on page 1 of Canning/Preserving - in the thread entitled "Storing Brown Rice".

(Source: Walton Feed)
Brown and white rices store very differently. Brown rice is only expected to store for 6 months under average conditions. This is because of the essential fatty acids in brown rice. These oils quickly go rancid as they oxidize. It will store much longer if refrigerated. White rice has the outer shell removed along with those fats. Because of this, white rice isn't nearly as good for you, but will store longer. Hermetically sealed in the absence of oxygen, plan on a storage life for white rice of 8-10 years at a stable temperature of 70 degrees F. It should keep proportionately longer if stored at cooler temperatures. Stored in the absence of oxygen, brown rice will last longer than if it was stored in air. Plan on 1 to 2 years. It is very important to store brown rice as cool as possible, for if you can get the temperature down another ten degrees, it will double the storage life again

-Karen

[stencil]

Low density polyethylene - the stuff they use to make heat-seal bags - is permeable by oxygen. It will keep out water, bacteria, and water vapor, but not the other atmospheric gases. The only way to provide the security of glass is to use poly-backed aluminum foil, but that is not easy to locate in retail quantities, as you can tell by the responses to my query elsewhere on this forum.

The boffins are working overtime to develop oxygen-impermeable flexible plastics, but until they start selling beer in plastic bags, you know they're still looking, and aluminum is the only answer.

Business opportunity knocking, there.