Food storage is our number-two way to be prepared for almost any crisis or situation that can arise in our lives. (Number one is water and water storage.) Our food storage can see us through lean times, no money times, power outages, and other crises. Simply put, we all need food storage.

Now, let us all be real here. We all have food in our food storage and pantries that is close to or past its expiration date. I am fairly organized in my food storage and I know I do.

While food expiration dates do not bother most people, it is important to stay on top of your food storage and rotate your food regularly. In times of crisis, you do not want to be questioning your food and whether it is edible or even good to eat.

You should take the time to grab foods that are about to expire or have already expired, bring them to the kitchen, and use them in your meals over the next week or month. This may mean some creative meals, but that is better than wasting food!

Some of you may think you shouldn’t touch your food storage, but you should. You really should. You want to keep your food storage fresh. When you eat something from your food storage, add that item to your grocery list and purchase another one (or two) for the food storage. By doing this, if you purchased any food for storage, tried it, and found that your family is not crazy about it, you know you should not make that food part of your plans.

When you go through your food storage, inventory what you have and when it expires. If you are a canner or a preserver, make a list of what you have preserved and put it in your food storage. With purchased food, write on top (or a highly visible surface) the expiration or use-by date with a permanent black marker. You want to see it at a glance and know which one to use first if you have multiples of an item. For canned or preserved goods, you want to write on the lid what’s inside the jar and when it was canned (at least the year).

You also need to get some organization going on in your food storage. Having it just thrown into the system or a bucket, with no way of knowing what is where, is the best way to have food go to waste. If you have food in buckets, mark each bucket with exactly what it contains. On your inventory, number the buckets with the contents of the bucket listed. On your shelves, you should have the fruits altogether, the meats altogether, the vegetables altogether, and so on. That way, you know where to find everything, and everything has a location to be put away. The oldest food should be in the front and the newest in the back.

Now, do not beat yourself up if you find food that has been neglected. I still have this problem, no matter how organized I am. I find the best way to stay on top of the food is to keep the shelves neat and not so cluttered that you can’t see what is on them. When the shelves get cluttered, I will be missing food that should be used up.

A note on safety: You are your own best decision-maker. The decision to use outdated, expired food is up to you. If the packaging looks compromised in any way, I would not use it. If you open the packaging and the food does not smell, look, or feel right, don’t use it. If the can or lid is bulging in any way, throw the item away immediately.

Thanks for reading,
Erica

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