The word "Mylar" is a trademark of the DuPont corporation for a special type of polyester film. Typically made in thin sheets, it has a high tensile strength and is used in a wide variety of industrial settings.
In food storage, particularly for the long term, it is commonly found as a laminate with Mylar as the top layer, a very thin aluminum foil in the middle and one or more other types of plastic films on the bottom acting as sealant plies. This laminate combination possesses a high resistance to the passage of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, other gasses and water vapor and is what makes it valuable for our purposes. Unfortunately, it has a poor puncture resistance so it must be used as an interior liner for more puncture resistant containers rather than as a stand- alone package. Food grade aluminized Mylar complies with US FDA requirements and is safe to be in contact with all food types except alcoholic.
For food use, Mylar is most commonly available as pre-made bags of various sizes. Flat sheets or rolls of the material might also be found from which bags could be fashioned as well.
When Mylar bags are used by the storage food industry they are generally for products sealed in plastic buckets. The reason for doing this is that the High Density PolyEthylene (HDPE) from which the pails are made is somewhat porous to gasses. This means that small molecules, such as oxygen (O2), can slowly pass through the plastic and come into contact with the food inside. The problem is further compounded if oxygen absorbers are used, as the result of their absorbing action is to lower the air pressure inside the container unless it has first been carefully flushed with an inert gas such as nitrogen. How fast this migration activity will occur is a function of the specific plastic formulation, its wall thickness and the air pressure inside the container. In order to gain the maximum possible shelf life a second gas barrier, the Mylar bag, is used inside the pail.
Whether the use of these bags is necessary for your home packaged storage foods depends on how oxygen sensitive the food item is and how long you want it to stay fresh. If the container is made of a gas impervious material such as metal or glass then a second gas barrier inside is not needed. If it is HDPE or a plastic with similar properties and you want to get the very longest possible storage life (say 10+ yrs for grain) then Mylar is a good idea. If you're going to rotate that grain in four to five years or less then it is not needed. Provided the oxygen has been purged from the container in the first place, either with a proper flushing technique, or by absorption, there will not have been sufficient O2 infiltration to seriously impact the food. Particularly oxygen sensitive foods such as dry milk powders that are to be kept in plastic containers for more than two years would benefit from the use of Mylar. Naturally, storage temperature and moisture content is going to play a major role as well.
There is also the question of the seal integrity of the outer container. If you are using thin walled plastic buckets in conjunction with oxygen absorbers the resulting drop in air pressure inside the pail may cause the walls to buckle. If this should occur, there would be a risk of losing seal integrity, particularly if the buckets are stacked two or more deep. If the food was packed in Mylar bags with the absorbers inside this would keep the vacuum from seriously stressing the container walls. Better still would be not to have the problem at all by either using containers of sufficient wall thickness or flushing with inert gas before sealing. Wall thickness is one reason why the six gallon Super Pails have become so widespread. It should be noted that Mylar is not strongly resistant to insect penetration and not resistant at all to rodents. If mice chew through your buckets, they'll go right through the bags.
A number of retail dealers carry Mylar bags. Contact information may be found in the suppliers section.
A.5.1 HOW DO I USE MYLAR BAGS? Sealing food in Mylar bags is a straight-forward affair, but it may take a bit of practice to get it right, so purchase one or two more bags than you think you'll need in case you don't immediately get the hang of it.
For Detailed Instructions Go Here#1 - The bags typically sold by storage food dealers look rather large when you compare them to the five or six gallons buckets they are commonly used in. That extra material is very necessary if you are to have enough bag left over after filling to be able to work with it. Unless you are very sure of what you are doing, don't trim off any material until after the sealing operation is completed.
#2 - Place the bag inside the outer container and fill with the food product. Resist filling it all the way to the top. You need at least an inch or so below the bucket rim left open to get the lid to seat completely. If you'll be using desiccants and oxygen absorbers together place the desiccant on the bottom of the bag before filling.
#3 - When it seems to be full, gently thump the pail on the floor a few times to pack the product in and reduce air pockets. Add any makeup food necessary to bring level back to where it should be.
#4 - Take the bag by the corners and pull out any slack in the material so that all sides can be pulled together evenly. Place your oxygen absorbers inside if you are going to use them. Now place a board over the top of the bucket and fold the bag end down over it keeping it straight and even. Place a piece of thin cotton fabric such as sheet or t-shirt material over the edge of the bag mouth. Using a clothes iron set on the cotton, wool or high setting run it over the cloth-covered Mylar about a half-inch from the edge for about twenty seconds or so until it seals. You'll probably have to do the bag in sections. Experimenting on a left-over strip to find the right temperature setting is a good idea.
#5 - When you've done the entire mouth of the bag allow it to cool. Once cool try to pull the mouth of the bag open. If it doesn't come open, fold the bag down into the pail until you feel the trapped air pillowing up firmly against the material and wait to see if it deflates. If it doesn't, then your seal is good. You can seal on the bucket lid at this point or take the further step to vacuum or gas flush the bag.
Once a seal has been obtained the bags can be left as-is, vacuum sealed or gas flushed. To obtain the most efficient oxygen removal the bags can be first drawn down with a vacuum pump and then purged using an inert gas.
A.5.2 VACUUM SEALING MYLAR BAGS: Once you have obtained a good seal on the bag, pulling a vacuum on the contents is also pretty straight forward.
First you'll need something to make a vacuum with. This can be either a regular vacuum pump, a vacuum sealer such as the Tilia Food Saver or even the suction end of your household vacuum cleaner. The end that is to be inserted into the bag will need to be of fairly small diameter in order to keep the hole in the Mylar from being any larger than necessary. This means that if you use a vacuum cleaner you'll need to fashion some form of reduction fitting.
Cut a hole into the Mylar bag on a corner, making the opening only just large enough to admit the vacuum probe. Insert the nozzle and using a sponge, or something similar, push down on the material over the probe to make a seal. Now draw down a vacuum on the bag. It will probably only take a second or two. When it's drawn down as much as possible, run a hot iron diagonally across the cut corner resealing the bag.
A.5.3 GAS FLUSHING MYLAR BAGS: Flushing with inert gas works essentially just like vacuum sealing except that you're putting more gas into the bag rather than taking it out. You'll want to keep the entry hole small, but don't make a seal around it as above. Beyond that, follow the directions as given in Section IV.B.2 - CO2 and Nitrogen. When you feel that the bag has been sufficiently flushed, run the iron across the corner just as above to seal.
Flushing with dry ice can also be done, but it is important to wait until the frozen carbon dioxide has completely sublimated into gas before making the final seal otherwise the bag will burst like an overfilled balloon.
Misc.Survivalism FAQs maintained by Alan T. Hagan, athagan@sprintmail.com
Copyright ©1996, 1997, 1998, 1999. Alan T. Hagan. All rights reserved.
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