Are Ziplocs the only way to package food for an extended trip? Is there a lightweight, durable, reusable container system?
Should I package individual meals, or if they will be the same, put it all in one container and take measured amounts out for each meal?
Thoughts/suggestions?
Breakfast cereal liners
My wife (PuffinGin) has been using those really tough to open wrapper liners from cold cereal boxes for years to repackage canoe trip food and put dehydrated meals into. They also work with the bag sealer (not a vacuum type) she uses and she makes even little sealed bags for 2 quart doses of Crystal light so we don’t have a ton of those little cups to haul out. It is a way to reuse what is normally waste and therefore “greener” than using lots of brand new ziplock bags.
portion control
i bag everything in heavy duty zip bags and reuse about 90% next trip. also portion out liquids in small plastic 1qtbottles and freeze them for longer trips. did a 12 day trip and had cold fresh milk everyday. as well as OJ,JD,butter and meats. i prefer giuiness cans when paddlin. taste perfect at water temp. cans crush up small and it tastes good too.
ziplocs
No reason whatsoever you can’t rinse out and reuse the baggies! I do it all the time. Rinse with hot water and hang upside down the fridgifrator with a magnet to dry.
Plastic waste
Zip lock now has baggies and a hand vacuum pump, you can seal the bag and pump the air out. I carry dehydrated food, and always vacuum seal them with the electric seal a meal pump, (this is after one very large meal on an extended trip, and not much after that). The seal a meal baggs can be boiled with the food in, thay are also thick and can be re-used.
to minimize pawing through your
– Last Updated: Aug-18-09 4:16 PM EST –
barrel or pack..pack all breakfasts in one or two bags, lunches in another and dinners in another. Nylon bags will do color coded as to meal.
I have had very good luck with the Zip Loc Vac bags..
I have a Food Saver sealer but what gets me is after you open each one individually (and since you cannot reseal them you have to use all the contents) you have lots of plastic waste. Sometimes you can reuse them after you get back home and sometimes not.
I like putting all my dehydrated beef for several meals in one ZipLoc vac bag and then using as needed. The pump weighs nothing and goes in the barrel too.
To avoid using too much at one meal I put in the number of meals that each ZipLoc is to provide on the bag with a permanent Sharpie.
Good for dehydrated fruits too like strawberries and pineapple and peaches which I dehydrate at home myself.
The Zip Locs are tough and some are on their third extended trip. I managed to fit in 21 days of food vacuum bagged in a 30 liter barrel. Getting rid of all air really helps packing efficiently. I used to try to protect with various storage boxes but they are too inefficient to pack into a barrel shape
zip loc bags
I use them on bwca trips. I use them over and over until they cannot be used again. I take the 2 gallon bags for packing meals in them. Most of the bags for this year’s trip are about 5 years old. In camp, I rinse out the bags, hang them up to dry and put them back in my food pack. Some of the smaller bags need to be replaced yearly but not many.
Lock and Lock
You might take a look at the Lock and Lock clear plastic food storage boxes.