Food Storage

Getting Started - Meat and Beans

Step Three: Determine how much meat and beans to store.

So now that you know how much of the meat and beans group to store, you need to decide on how much of each to store. It is a good idea to store a variety of foods from the meat and beans group that you know your family will eat.

Here are some tips to help you:

• Evaluate how much of the meat and beans group your family consumes on a daily or weekly basis. Try to calculate how much of the meat and beans group your family would consume in a year. Remember to include meals eaten out.

 

• Supply yourself with foods that you will eat regularly. If your family consumes a large quantity of eggs, you may want to look into other sources of eggs besides fresh eggs such as dehydrated egg products.

 

• Evaluate the storage life of different foods from the meats and beans group. Beans typically have a longer storage life, if properly stored, than meat and eggs. So you may want to focus on storing beans and gathering a variety of vegetarian recipes to try. Many meat recipes can also be used by omitting the meat or using a meat substitute such as Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)

 

• Evaluate the storage conditions of the meat and beans group product you will be storing. Frozen meats can take up a lot of storage space in the freezer. Beans on the other hand can be stored in a cool, dry place pretty much anywhere in the house.