Storing Food- The Importance of FiFo

The term FIFO is something you may be familiar with if you are in the food or hospitality industry. The term FIFO stands for first in first out. This is more than just a catchy phrase or something fun to say it is an important practice for anyone who has any type of bulk food storage. If you have food on hand that is going to last weeks, months, or even years, then this is more important than you might imagine.

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Being able to rotate your stock evenly helps to ensure that you have the freshest food available on hand. Times and dates help the FIFO process to run smoothly. When your food is rotated in the first in first out order, this means all the old food is always eaten first while the newest and freshest food is saved for last. This is done obviously so that you can conserve on food by not throwing away food that has not yet been eaten because it went bad.

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The FiFo process is something that everybody learns when you enter the restaurant industry. This is something that school should teach today but do not. Instead, they teach integers and other strange concepts that most likely will never be applied to real life. FiFo is once again not just a fun thing to say; it is a system that is important to the integrity of the condition of your food.

 

...And the first thing they should never forget! Many people hoard canned food but consume other kinds of food leaving their stock to rot in the basement.
It's not only basic prepper rules, it's basic housekeeping. In my home we make a lot of jarred and canned food too, not necessarily out of fear, but to preserve seasonal vegetables and have some semi-ready components to use in recipes, so at home we're aware of expiration risk. But if you stock pre-packaged food you tend to forget about them more easily if you don't organise your stash, because you didn't put any effort into making them.

 

I agree with the previous poster. So many people eat fresh and only use cans for prepping. Therefore, they get really old and the FiFo concept gets thrown out the window. It is super important to at least get new cans and donate or use your old ones if you don't normally eat canned food and just use them for disaster prep purposes.

 

This is what we do! It's an easy tax write-off and you're helping others on need.

 

For those who have been reading my posts, you already know that we have a cupboard that is a food cabinet containing canned goods and other food items that can be stored. The cabinet is a tall one with 4 sections. The lower level stores sugar, salt, and boxed food like choco porridge, corn starch, etc. The second level is for the daily use such as breakfast items - spam, corned beef, sausage, etc. The cupboard also contains all items needed in the kitchen like cooking oil, soy sauce, vinegar, etc. You can imagine the long list of items that are in our cupboard.

Packed items, whether canned or boxed, have their expiration that's why it is very important to practice that FIFO - first in, first out method for storing food items to prevent expired food. We are fortunate to have a housemaid who does that chore. When the groceries arrive, she would painstakingly pull out all the items in the cupboard's sections, place in the new ones and the old ones would be in the outer position. It's better to work on that chore of placing the old ones in the outer instead of being an old stock and thereby wasted when expired.

 

It's important to take note of the safety of the foods that we might consume because if we should ignore this aspect then we could probably have to face some grave consequences. Therefore, I fully subscribe to keeping tabs on the food I may have in storage and ensuring that its time safe and the older dated items should be used first.

 

I worked part time in retail and learned about rotating goods.
Even dry goods such as clothing is rotated.
Hardware items not so much.

My fiance thinks all this prepping stuff is a sign of a mental disorder.
If so there are a lot of us.
I think it's just smart.

I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

Sadly the fiance is legally blind, her 42 year old daughter is paranoid schizophrenic.
NUTS.
I thought about including them in my prepping and survival plans.
FOR TWO SECONDS!
Then dismissed the notion.
Her daughter ON her meds is bad enough. Sadly she's STUPID as well as nuts.
I think border line retarded and mentally ill.
OFF her meds................................well, she's on her own.
If she were just a bit stupid I could help her but being paranoid schizophrenic
is way out of my ability to care for.

Her boy friend can care for her.
He's nuts also.

 

Spoilage is a problem, I would invest in a freeze dryer, or purchasing freeze dried foods which have up to 25 year shelf life. Freeze dried food takes up less space, is lighter if you have to travel and maintains it's nutrients throughout shelf life. Either way it would be impossible to stock enough to sustain you forever, so I would also stock up on seeds for planting and hope you are able to endure long enough to reach an area to plant, or things stabilize enough to plant wherever you are settled in.

 

I'll say!
It's a shame youth is wasted on the young.
"To soon we get old; too late we get smart."
Honestly ..........................here's a short story.
The city I policed was a college town, among other things.
A high dollar Presbyterian university.
Most students were spoiled children of doctors, lawyers, engineers, professional
folks. (read they had the bucks)
From time to time I would take written statements from some of them reference
some criminal activity.
Honestly they couldn't even freakin' spell!
I'm sure they graduated based on the income earned by the university.
It's a Methodist university but not limited to any denomination.
Established in 1858.
Expensive school and a very, very, good school.
As a city employee I could audit classed (and did) but for no credit.
I had to get my first degree from a State university then later from a private
Presbyterian university at NO COST to me.
I'm sooooooooooooooo lucky.

 

Re: Freeze dried. Good idea but I already have an electric food dehydrator.
Many foods can be dried in the oven if temps are monitored carefully.
Smoking is another good way to preserve foods but I know little
about that method.
How does one freeze dry foods anyway.
I haven't a clue. ( it kills me to admit I don't know something! )

 

Freeze drying requires specific equipment, items have to be flash frozen then slowly heated in vacuum so that the frozen moisture is sublimated ( goes straight to a vapor from solid frozen state) as it melts. With no moisture present bacteria won't grow.