Want to know what to use for storing food, long term? Use Mylar bags for dehydrated food storage after you have finished vacuum sealing your dried food.

I use pint- and quart-sized-vacuum bags and make custom-sized bags from rolls.

When your Mylar bags have been filled and sealed, the final step for long-term food storage is inside plastic-lidded bins, or buckets. Doing all this is for "serious" food preppers.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Mylar Bags Give An Extra Layer of Protection

These special bags are made from a polyester film and are very shiny in appearance. I use them to keep out air, light, moisture, and BUGS!

Mylar bags are very tough and tear-resistant and are ideal for food packaging—they provide an extra layer of protection to our individual food packets.

Mylar Bags at Amazon

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Who Invented Mylar?

Mylar is a thin, silvery gray polyester film that was first invented in the 1950s by the DuPont chemical company. Now commonly called Mylar, it paved the way for a versatile new form of durable and flexible plastic sheeting.

Today, Mylar polyester film is manufactured by a number of corporations around the world. It continues to be valued for its unique combination of strength, flexibility, and thinness.

Unlike many plastics, Mylar polyester films can be stretched and flexed without tearing or cracking. Mylar also resists punctures which is good to know. Why? Many dried foods are brittle and have sharp points!

Why Use Mylar Bags for Dehydrated Food Storage?

When it comes to storing dried foods, Mylar bags are ideal. They are airtight and moisture-resistant as mentioned above. Keeping your dried foods inside Mylar bags helps keep it fresh and free from mold and other contaminants (bugs!).

I put my filled and sealed Mylar bags inside food storage containers (like lidded bins and buckets), or on a shelf, loose. If you need storage room (and who doesn't?!) check out how to make storage space out of thin air here!

Did You Know This?
Mylar Bags are Smooth Inside...

Mylar bags are smooth, both inside and out, unlike food vacuum-sealer bags.

As stated earlier, the reason you can't vacuum these bags, (or at the very least is hard to do), is that both sides of the Mylar bag are smooth and when clamped closed in the food vacuum-sealer, the air cannot be drawn out. But really there's no need to draw the air out.

We simply use the Mylar bags to store our filled vacuum-sealed bags as extra protection.

Here's the reason for the "textured side" in vacuum-sealer bags:

Food vacuum-sealer bags need to have one inner side textured. You need to have a way for the air to be drawn out when vacuum-sealing your packages that are filled with dehydrated food!

Use a Black Felt-Tipped Marker Pen on Mylar bags

Place Three or Four (Max!)  Packages Inside One Mylar Bag

I can get at least three plastic-wrapped vacuum-packed packages into one bag, sometimes four. Do not over-stuff, though.

If you try to get more in, it makes it harder to seal the bag, plus you risk puncturing the vacuum-sealed packages inside when one pokes against the other. That's the reason why I plastic-wrap the packages after vacuum sealing.

For a 10-inch by 14-inch Mylar bag, don't forget to add a 300cc oxygen absorber for long-term storage, before sealing. Adding an oxygen absorber before sealing is for when you know you won't be going in the bag for a long time.

Filled Mylar Bags for Dehydrated Food Storage

Don't forget to check out Amazon for the best prices for Mylar bags—and as you can see in the Amazon ads shown farther up the page, some Mylar bags come complete with a matching number of appropriately sized oxygen absorbers!

Thanks for reading about Mylar bags for dehydrated food storage.

I hope you found the information useful, especially regarding why we do not vacuum the air out of Mylar bags!

Questions? Write to me here.

Don't forget to get your free "Six Simple Steps" eBook where I share how to dehydrate food safely!