Cooked food / heat and serve meal, long term packaging

Cooked food / heat and serve meal, long term packaging - Through glass of tasty burger with cutlet and cheese served on white plate in hot oven on rack while roasting

How does package food producers such as "Seeds of Change" or "Pacific Foods" package their food to keep for up to 15 months and store without refrigeration? What consumer, or DIY approach, most closely resembles their process?

It seems they use certain natural preservatives, detailed packaging materials, a food vacuum system, and perhaps a bit of drying. I'm trying to avoid canning if possible. The plastic/paper material weighs a lot less.



Best Answer

The commonest (in my experience - probably variable around the world) consumer DIY approach to this is the one that uses the step that you missed - high temperature (as mentioned by @John Feltz) - namely, pressure canning at 15 PSI (250°F) - in my experience, glass canning jars with metal lids, but flexible packages are evidently consumer-available more commonly that I've seen them around the world (perhaps even here, if I was looking for them.)

I've certainly eaten canned items stored at room temperature well older than 15 months and lived to tell the tale - indeed, I don't consider it anything to think about, other than verifying that the jar is, in fact, still sealed when time comes to use it. This may well not coincide with the most-paranoid recommendations on canned food shelf-life, but surely someone will be along to give the most-paranoid view shortly.




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How do you preserve cooked food for a long time?

The best ways to preserve food for long-term storage
  • #1 Dehydrating. Dehydrating food can be done by using an oven, an electric dehydrator, or by the sun using a solar dehydrator. ...
  • #2 Sun drying. ...
  • #3 Drying. ...
  • #4 Dry storage. ...
  • #5 Canning. ...
  • #6 Vacuum sealing. ...
  • #7 Fermentation. ...
  • #8 Salting.


  • What is the longest lasting packaged food?

    • Bouillon cubes. ...
    • Peanut butter. \u2022 Shelf life: 2 years. ...
    • Dark chocolate. \u2022 Shelf life: 2 to 5 years. ...
    • Canned or vacuum-pouched tuna. \u2022 Shelf life: 3 to 5 years after "best by" date. ...
    • Dried beans. \u2022 Shelf life: Indefinite. ...
    • Honey. \u2022 Shelf life: Indefinite. ...
    • Liquor. \u2022 Shelf life: Indefinite. ...
    • White rice. \u2022 Shelf life: Indefinite.


    What is the best way to store food long term?

    Open food boxes or cans carefully so that you can close them tightly after each use. Wrap cookies and crackers in plastic bags, and keep them in air-tight storage containers. Empty opened packages of sugar, dried fruits and nuts into screw-top jars or airtight food storage containers to protect them from pests.

    Which cooked food can be stored the longest?

    16 Foods That Can Be Stored Longer Than We Thought
    • Meat + nettle + marinades.
    • Ginger + boiled water or parchment paper. ...
    • Grapes + rope. ...
    • Cottage cheese + sugar or salt. ...
    • Apricots + compartments. ...
    • Cheese + parchment paper. ...
    • Celery, broccoli, lettuce + tinfoil. ...
    • Berries + vinegar + water. \xa9 Fabulesslyfrugal, \xa9 Allrecipes. ...




    How to Start A Meal Prep Business | inside scoop of a commercial kitchen




    More answers regarding cooked food / heat and serve meal, long term packaging

    Answer 2

    What they are using is canning. Canning does not depend on the container being glass; canning means that you

    1. Have contents that are acidic enough to stop botulism spores from growing
    2. Seal the food hermetically, so no new contamination can come in before the package is opened for consumption
    3. Cook the food (in the container) at temperatures sufficient to kill everything inside except for botulism spores (they are very hardy, you can't get it hot enough to kill those)

    If you have a plastic material which withstands the heat and pressure and seals hermetically, then you can can in it too. I am not aware of any consumer grade system which uses such material, but I have not searched for it specifically.

    The only other way to preserve food for 15 months is freezing. There are no other options, unless you consider some which change the food itself (e.g. you can preserve meat by making pastrami out of it, or preserve cabbage by making sauerkraut).

    Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

    Images: Katerina Holmes, Erik Mclean, Milan, Katerina Holmes