Four Signs the Food You've Been Stocking Up On Won't Be There When You Need It

And what a woman who ran a school kitchen storeroom keeps in her own garage

My daughter called me that night and said, "Mom. I can't get them off."

She was talking about the lids on her jars. I'll get to that.

Since then Jen told her friends, and her friends told theirs. Now the women at church stop me in the parking lot and ask me the same questions.

I'm tired of saying it five times after service. So I'm writing it down once.

This is what I told Jen in my garage, the Saturday she pulled in from Walmart with a receipt and a knot in her stomach. It's also what I'd tell anyone my age.

You may have read about Earl's tote, the one from church. That's why I started.

I just do things quietly. But this one I think people should hear.

Here are the four things I look for. You can check most of them tonight.

If you only came for the sealer I showed Jen, here it is: the Kalda jar sealer. It seals in under a minute, and if it stops sealing in the first year Kalda sends you a new one.

If you want to know why I seal my dry food, keep reading.

Sign #1: The open bag

Go look at the bag of rice or flour you opened last.

I'll bet it's rolled down. Maybe a twist tie on it, maybe a chip clip.

Every time that bag gets opened, air goes in. Air is what makes it go stale.

Nobody warned us.

You do that to one bag. Now think about the ones you haven't opened yet.

What's happening in those?

Sign #2: It came home in the bag

Most people think bugs in the pantry means a dirty kitchen. I did too.

Then I read the pest bulletin from the University of California. I'll read you the line.

"Pantry pests usually enter your home in an infested package of food."

The dirty shelf isn't the problem. The package is.

Then this one: "By the time you spot a pantry pest, it has usually spread to other food packages."

That one stopped me. By the time you see one, it has already moved.

I never had the words for how fast it travels, not in all my years in the storeroom.

Sign #3: The bag-to-bag spread

Here's how it goes.

One bag comes home from the store with something in it. The eggs hatch. The little ones move to the next bag on the shelf.

Colorado State says the caterpillars can chew through thin cardboard or plastic bags. I've seen them go through a Ziploc.

That's the bag-to-bag spread. One bag brings them home, and every bag that isn't sealed is next.

And in a plastic tote you can't see it happening. You can't look at a tote and know a thing.

Earl from church found that out. He bought a twenty-pound bag of rice and another one for storm season. Put them in a plastic tote in the garage, lid on. Felt good about it.

He told me, "When I opened the tote I could hear them scampering around in the bag."

Forty dollars of rice, straight to the trash. And he found out the day he went to use it.

Sign #4: Kitchens don't leave flour in the bag

When I ran the storeroom, we never kept flour in the bag it came in.

Air, bugs and water were the whole job. Every case we ever threw out, we threw out because one of those three got in.

At home people hang a moth trap and call it handled. Those only catch the males. The females keep laying.

The neighbors who look calm right now have their food in jars.

Most people never look in the bag until they need it.

You open it in February, when the roads are bad or money is tight. It smells like the inside of a cardboard box. Or it's moving.

One summer in a garage. That's all it takes.

You don't have to believe all of it

Jen said it to me too. "That still sounds like a worst case, Mom."

Maybe. Maybe your bags are fine. Maybe you'll use it all before summer.

But three things stay true either way.

The bag gets opened, and air goes in. Bugs usually come home in a store bag. And a bag on a shelf can't tell you what's inside.

If you'd rather just see it, the sealer is right here.

The one thing most people overlook

Your grandma kept her flour in glass. She just didn't have a way to get the air out.

So you need two things together. Glass they can't chew through, and the air out, so the lid pulls down flat.

From across the garage you can't tell which lid is sealed and which is just sitting there.

Put a week in each jar. You open one, the rest stay shut.

One more thing. The eggs come home in the bag, so every new bag gets those few days in my deep freezer first. If one bag still had something in it, it stays in that one jar.

The worst time to find out is the day you go to use it.

Which is why I seal the dry food first

I can't control the store bag or the grocery bill. I can control whether one bad bag reaches the rest.

What I use is a little electric sealer from a company called Kalda. You set it on the lid and push the button. It runs for under a minute. You wait till it stops before you lift it off, and the lid sucks down tight.

It works on my regular jars and my wide mouth ones. The box came with five lids of each size, the lid adaptor, a USB-C cord, and a little opener for my key ring.

Jen asked how I get into one at my age.

I took the opener off my key ring and set it under the edge of the lid. It popped.

My hands are sixty-eight years old, Jen. If I can open it, you can.

You take out what you need, set the sealer back on, and seal it again.

My first one, a twenty dollar one off Amazon, quit on me. At my age I'm not buying a thing twice.

1-year replacement if it stops sealing · 30-day returns

Why most jar sealers let you down when you need them most

With most of what's out there, the lids come loose or the pump quits the day you go to use it, and you can't tell from the picture.

I tried plastic tubs and buckets.

So how do I know mine holds?

Every morning I walk the shelf and pull on every lid. That's my pull test.

Seal your rice tonight, then try to get a lid off in the morning. That's the only way you'll believe me.

When Jen called, that's what she meant. "Mom. I can't get them off." Her husband Mike tried too. He couldn't either.

What if it dies on me? I asked that myself.

If it stops sealing in the first year, Kalda sends you a new one. That's the part I cared about. You also get thirty days to send it back.

Ten lids sounds like very few. Here's what I did. I started with the jars I open most, a week's worth in each. The rest wait their turn.

This is the one I use. It takes 7 to 14 business days to get here, so I'd order before the next time you shop.

Bags and clips, next to a sealed jar

What happened at Jen's house

Jen wasn't sure until the next morning.

Over the next week she texted me a photo of everything she tried. The flour. The oats. The pinto beans. The dog food. The coffee. The crackers from the back of the cupboard.

Same thing every time. Lid sucked down, wouldn't budge.

"I didn't do anything special," she told me. "I just set it on top and pushed the button."

Then Mike was the one who said they should get their own.

Becky, my other daughter, called that evening. She buys the big bags of oatmeal for her three kids. She wanted one too.

Nothing out there got any better. Prices are still up. Storms are still coming.

The knot is gone. Her food is in glass.

The only problem

I keep one in my kitchen and one out in the garage. Jen has hers. Becky wanted her own.

That's why the two and three packs made sense to me. One for every house you'd worry about.

One is $49.99. Two are $90. Three are $127.50. Shipping in the US is free on orders of $50 or more, so the two and three packs ship free.

The only problem is time. Like I said, it takes 7 to 14 business days to get here.

Every week it isn't here is another week the bags sit open on the shelf. The February roads don't wait for the mail. Neither does storm season.

Nobody's going to come check on it for you.

By the time the rest of your street opens those bags, it'll be too late to do anything about what's inside.

$49.99 · 2 for $90 · 3 for $127.50 · 1-year replacement · 30-day returns

Emily

P.S. I'm strict about one thing. Dry food only.

Rice, flour, sugar, beans, oats, pasta, coffee, crackers, the dog food. Anything wet goes in the fridge or the freezer like always.