With proper storage, you can preserve wheat for 30-plus years. That’s 3 decades. The most important factor in wheat storage is an oxygen-free environment, and for that, we need to repackage the wheat.
The best way to store wheat is in moisture-proof food-grade storage like Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers that protect kernels from oxygen, moisture, heat, light, and bugs. Other food packages include #10 cans, polyethylene, or vacuum seal bags. To avoid rodents chewing into storage bags store them inside, rodent-proof, plastic buckets or bins.
Also, the packaged wheat should be stored in a cool, dry location without major fluctuations in temperature.
The best “DIY” packaging method for preserving dry wheat is a 5-gallon food-grade bucket lined with a Mylar bag and 2000cc of oxygen absorption.
When I first started researching how I would store my bulk dry goods, I looked at the different options. All of the alternates have drawbacks that Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers don’t.
Suppose you are ready to start building your long-term food stores. Read on.
Warning: Before packaging, wheat berries should contain 10% moisture or less. Dry foods packaged in an oxygen-free environment with a moisture content above 10% may form anaerobic bacteria, namely botulism—a rare but deadly food poisoning.
How to store wheat: 10 Methods
There are packaging containers that keep moisture, oxygen, and bugs out, and there are methods of removing oxygen and killing bugs present when wheat is repackaged.
Following are 10 treatment methods used to kill bugs and/or remove oxygen from wheat berries.
#1 Oxygen Absorbers
Oxygen absorbers are my preferred method of removing oxygen and killing all bug life stages: adult, pupae, and eggs from storage containers.
No DIY storage method is as simple and effective as using oxygen absorbers and a container that provides a true-oxygen barrier such as Mylar bags.
The Food-grade buckets protect the Mylar from physical damage and are easily stacked for storage.
Oxygen Absorbers Do It All: Long Term Wheat Storage
- O2 Absorbers remove oxygen from sealed food containers to prevent food oxidation
- O2 Absorbers Kill all stages of bug life within 2 weeks
- O2 Absorbers Give Wheat a 30 + year shelf-life
#2 Vacuum Sealing
DIY vacuum sealing removes less oxygen than oxygen absorbers.
This residual oxygen will deteriorate wheat, imparting off-flavors, odors, and bug eggs can hatch. You are not going to get 30 years of shelf-life from wheat that is vacuum-packed.
#3 Dry Ice Treatment
Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide and does the same thing oxygen absorbers do, but not as well, and Oxygen absorbers are easier and safer to use.
Dry ice displaces Oxygen and kills adult bugs in a food storage container, but it may not kill pupae and eggs. (most dry grains have dormant eggs present).
The main concern with the dry ice method, it leaves condensation or moisture in your storage container. Moisture is a major spoiler of dry foods like wheat, in higher concentrations, can lead to anaerobic bacteria like botulism.
How Do You Treat Wheat With Dry Ice?
Place 3-4 inches of grain in the bottom of a 5-gallon plastic bucket. Use gloves when handling dry ice. Add
A Guide To Food Storage For Emergencies, Utah State University, PDF
2-3 oz crushed dry ice. Fill the container to the full height. Place the lid on top slightly askew. After 30
minutes, seal the lid air-tight. Dry ice will control most adult and larval insects present but usually will not
destroy eggs or pupae. If properly applied, a single treatment with dry ice is sufficient for long-term storage.
Annual dry ice treatments are not necessary unless an infestation is recognized in the stored grain. Treating
grain with dry ice does not reduce its ability to sprout or its food value.
Warning: dry ice is dangerous to work with if not handled properly.
#4 Freezing
Freezing is used to extend shelf-life, but it depends on electricity to do so.
Personally, I don’t want my emergency food stores reliant on a utility I might not have in a major SHTF situation.
Freezing is meant to kill bugs, but it is not effective at killing some varieties of weevil eggs.
Even the professionals disagree on how long you need to freeze wheat to kill bugs.
One article I read, discussing the topic, mentioned how certain weevil eggs could survive through North Dakota’s winters, so freezing did little to phase them.
Freeze 1-15 lb bags of wheat for 2-3 days. Allow warming for 24 hours. Freezing kills live pests but not insect
A Guide To Food Storage For Emergencies, Utah State University, PDF
eggs. Multiple freezing and warming cycles may be needed to kill all insects and hatching eggs.
Don’t freeze wheat because it takes a lot of space, and time and imparts moisture to your wheat. Moisture is another spoiler of bulk dry foods.
#5 Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous earth is the silica skeletons of diatoms.
It looks kind of like sand in consistency and can be mixed into your dry foods to kill adult bugs and hatched larvae.
It’s ineffective in killing eggs and pupae, so if you use it, you’ll have bug carcasses in your wheat.
Warning: Use breathing protection when working with Diatomaceous Earth it is silica and is dangerous to breath
#6 Insecticides
Do not use. Professionals in commercial food operations sometimes use insecticides. Unskilled personnel should not attempt this.
#7 Heating:
Not recommended because it’s difficult to control and determine the correct amount of heat.
#8 Bay Leaves:
Commonly used in countries like India, where refrigeration is less common.
Bay leaves may keep adult bugs out of jars that aren’t air-tight, but they are ineffective at killing bugs.
At best bay leaves are a deterrent, they don’t do anything in an airtight, oxygen free-container but impart off-flavors to your wheat.
#9 Nails
No effect on insect life and is ineffective in removing oxygen from a sealed container.
#10 Salt
Ineffective in Killing bugs and does nothing to remove oxygen from a sealed container.
Best Wheat Storage Container
The best, do-it-yourself storage containers for wheat are a combination of 5-gallon buckets lined with Mylar bags. If you want to purchase wheat stored you will want to go with #10 cans you can get at the LDS Home Storage Center online or from survival food companies. Most of my dry staples including dry beans, white rice, rolled oats, and wheat are stored in this fashion. Let’s take a look at what you need to store wheat with Mylar bags and buckets.
9 Tools Needed to Store Wheat
- 18″x28″ Mylar Bag(s) (this is the size I use) or 20″x30″
- 5-gallon food-grade bucket with a cheap lid; when using Mylar, you don’t need a fancy lid with a seal
- 1-gallon Mylar bags for overflow
- Standard Clothes Iron to heat-seal the Mylar bag
- Permanent Marker to mark the package with the packing date and food type
- 2000cc Oxygen Absorber(s) for 5-gallon bucket lined with an 18″x28″ Mylar bag
- 500cc Oxygen Absorbers(s) for 1-gallon overflow bag(s), extra beans that won’t fit in your bucket
- Wood Board used to place the top of the bag over when you seal it with the iron
- Scissors to cut open the wheat bag, scissors make a clean cut, so it’s easier to pour the wheat out of the bag
Chart #1 How many oxygen absorbers for wheat storage
| Container Size | Bag Dimensions | CC Oxygen Absorber(s) For Dried Wheat |
| 1 Quart (1/4 gallon) Mylar Bag | 6″x10″ | 100cc |
| 1/2 Gallon Mylar Bag | 8″x12″ | 200cc |
| 1 Gallon Mylar Bag | 10″x14″ | 500cc |
| 1.5 Gallon Mylar Bag | 12″x18″ | 1000cc |
| 2 Gallon Mylar Bag | 14″x20″ | 1000cc |
| 5 Gallon Mylar Bag | 20″x30″ or 18″x28″ | 2000cc |
| 6 Gallon Mylar Bag | 20″x30″ or 18″x28″ | 2000cc |
Mylar Bag Size
When packaging, consider how much rice you want to be exposed to oxygen when you open it.
Larger 5-gallon Mylar bags are much easier to fill, but they expose a lot of food to the environment when opened. They are also heavy and more difficult to move around.
It’s less convenient, but storing wheat in smaller 10″x14″ (1-gallon) or 14″x20″ (2-gallon) Mylar bags minimizes the amount of rice exposed to oxygen when the package is opened.
The packages are lighter and easier to handle.
Wheat Storage Tip: Even if you go with 5 or 6-gallon pails, you will be using smaller bags for overflow, the extra wheat that won’t fit in the food pail.
So plan to purchase two sizes of Mylar bags and the oxygen absorbers to go in them. This is how I do it.
- Use a 500cc absorber in a 1-gallon bag for extra wheat
- Use a 2000cc absorber for a 5-gallon food-grade pail lined with an 18″x28″ Mylar bag
Mylar Bag Thickness
My go-to bags are 5 mils. They keep light out and are tough enough when stored in a plastic food pail or a lidded plastic container.
Myla bags of less than 5 mils are easily damaged and let light into the package causing light oxidation.
Wheat Storage Tip: When storing wheat in smaller Mylar bags, you still want to protect them, so place them inside a lidded bucket or a lidded plastic bin to protect wheat from bugs, rodents, and physical damage.
Food Grade Bucket(s)
You can use non-food grade buckets to store rice as long as they are lined with a Mylar bag.
You don’t want your wheat to directly contact non-food grade plastic because the chemicals and dies used in manufacturing are toxic.
Interested in storing wheat, check out the Ready Squirrel article, “How to Store Flour Long and Short-term.”
Non-Food Grade Bucket
When it comes to food for long-term storage, I want to have as many options as possible.
The bucket that holds wheat today can be repurposed for food-grade uses tomorrow.
Down the road, I may want to make pickles, honey mead, or cider. If the bucket is food-grade, I can use it.
In a truly SHTF situation, you may not have the option of running to Walmart or ordering a food-grade bucket online.
Pounds of Wheat Per Storage Container
Each size of Mylar bag or container will hold a specific amount, by weight, of wheat.
Knowing how much a container will hold helps you plan for what you need for a wheat packing day.
- 1 Quart Mylar Bag holds 1.6 pounds of wheat
- 1/2-gallon Mylar Bag filled contains 3.2 pounds of wheat
- 1-gallon Mylar bag filled contains 6 pounds of wheat
- 2 gallon Mylar bag will hold 12 pounds of wheat
- 5-gallon Bucket lined with an 18″x28″ Mylar Bag holds 35 to 36 pounds of wheat
- 6-gallon Bucket lined with an 18″x28″ Mylar Bag contains 44 to 45 pounds of wheat when filled
- #10 can hold 5.5 pounds of wheat
Wheat To Store Per Person
According to Utah State University, you should store 175 pounds of wheat per person for a year’s supply.
Wheat is one of the many grains they suggest storing to make up the 400 pounds of grain storage suggested per person for a one-year supply.
Types Of Wheat To Store
Hard Wheat is the most common type of wheat stored in long-term storage because it provides the most protein and is the best for making leavened bread.
Hard red wheat tastes a little gamier than white wheat, but it has more protein. Soft wheat can be stored but is more for unleavened baked goods.
Chart #2 Wheat Type and Use
| Types of Wheat | Shelf-life | Primary Use When Cooking |
| Spelt | 30 + | Yeast Bread, Pasta, Biscuits, and Crackers (said to make excellent-tasting bread) |
| Durum | 30 + | Pasta and Unleavened Bread, ground for semolina flour, thick sticky gluten, high protein |
| Hard Red Spring | 30 + | Classic Whole Wheat Bread, best in yeast or sourdough bread, highest protein |
| Hard Red Winter | 30+ | Yeast Bread, excellent for sprouting, the highest protein |
| Hard White | 30 + | Leavened Bread, excellent tasting white bread, Beer making, Medium protein |
| Emmer | 30 + | Pasta, Unleavened Flat Bread |
| Einkorn | 30+ | Leavened and Unleavened bread |
| Kamut | 30+ | Leavened Bread, Pasta (organic Khorasan wheat) |
| Khorasan | 30+ | Leavened Bread |
| Soft Red | 30+ | Bread and Beer Making, Medium Protein |
| Soft White | 30+ | Primarily used to make batters: cakes, cookies, waffles, pancakes, and as a soup thickener, low protein. |
To learn more about wheat berries prime for long-term storage check out the Ready Squirrel article, “The Best Wheat Berry For Long-term Storage.”
Shelf life of wheat
Wheat berries that contain 10% moisture or less, packaged in an oxygen-free container and stored in a cool, dry environment, will be good for 30 years or more.
Wheat in store-bought packaging has a shelf life of 5 years if stored properly and isn’t infested by hatching bug eggs.
Storage Environment
The ideal preservation environment for wheat and other dried foods is going to be cool and dry.
Protecting wheat from oxidation, moisture and heat will give you the longest shelf-life.
Storage Temperature For Wheat Berries
The ideal storage temperature for wheat can be tough to achieve, so do the best you can.
One thing is for sure you want to avoid storing long-term foods, including wheat, in areas that aren’t environmentally controlled.
Store wheat and other dried foods in a hot garage, and you’ll shave off decades of shelf life.
The Ideal Temperature for the long-term storage of wheat berries or wheat kernels is 75° Fahrenheit or less but above freezing.
Ideal Storage Humidity
The humidity or amount of moisture in the air in your long-term storage pantry should be as low as possible. Moisture destroys food and some types of packaging like cardboard, paper, and metal cans.
Moisture is the #1 spoiler of grains like wheat, causing bacterial growth and mold.
The ideal humidity for the preservation of wheat in long-term storage is 15% or less.
If you live in a high-humidity area, consider using a dehumidifier in your food storage pantry.
Rice and other dried foods soak up moisture in the air like a sponge.
This isn’t as much of an issue if you are storing rice in Mylar and sealing it as long as it is 10% moisture or less before packaging.
If wheat sits in a high-humidity environment it will mold, mildew, and acquire off-odors and flavors.
6 Oxygen-free Storage Containers
Following are 6 storage containers you can use to preserve wheat in long-term storage.
Some are better than others, but I wanted you to see the most common options so you can choose the container that fits your situation and budget.
Storage Tip: To preserve wheat and other dried grains for long-term storage, use oxygen absorbers in all of these containers to create an oxygen-free environment.
#1 Ball Jars
An excellent Oxygen barrier but they break easily and they don’t protect wheat from light oxidation.
#2 Sterilized Soda Bottles/PETE
Some people swear by soda bottles but I’ve never used them.
If you re-use soda bottles to repackage wheat, make sure you sterilize the bottle and the cap before repacking them with wheat. Make sure they are super dry before storage.
If you put wheat in wet bottles, it will head south in a hurry.
The reason I’m not fond of soda bottles for wheat storage: the bottle plastic isn’t that tough, it’s not a true oxygen barrier, and soda bottles don’t protect wheat from light. If you decide to re-use bottles like this, avoid anything that stored dairy products.
Scott Ready Squirrel
#3 Food-grade Bucket Without A Mylar Bags
The problem with buckets is that plastic isn’t a true oxygen barrier, and even the best lids don’t hold a seal over decades of storage.
Other than #10 cans and buckets are the toughest food storage container.
#4 #10 Cans
If you keep moisture down, #10 cans are probably the best storage container for wheat and other super tough and keep an excellent seal.
A high moisture environment will rust that if you keep moisture down cans.
Cans do have a couple of drawbacks for the average user.
Most of us don’t have access to the equipment necessary to package wheat this way.
There is the option to purchase wheat professionally packaged in #10 cans but you are going to pay more than if you purchase wheat in bulk and package it yourself.
One, final downhill cans may impart a tinny flavor to foods stored over decades.
It has mostly been remedied because modern cans have a food-safe lining of acrylic or R enamel which creates a barrier between the metal and food.
#5 Mylar Bags
Mylar bags are hands down the best “do it yourself option” for repackaging wheat for long-term storage. Most of us can do it relatively inexpensively.
Mylar is an outstanding moisture and oxygen barrier and protects wheat from light oxidation.
The downside of Mylar bags is that they are somewhat weak and easily damaged compared to #10 cans or food-grade buckets.
Mylar is also extremely susceptible to damage from rodents.
#6 Food Grade Bucket, A Mylar Bag & Oxygen Absorber
This is the perfect trifecta for wheat and dry grains storage.
The Mylar bag is the best DIY oxygen barrier, the bucket and lid are excellent armor for Mylar, and the oxygen absorber removes oxygen leaving just nitrogen in the bag.
Moisture Content before packaging for storage
Wheat and other dried foods like rice, beans, and other grains should be 10% or less in moisture content before repackaging for long-term oxygen-free preservation.
When storing grains with moisture higher than 10% in an oxygen-free container, the perfect environment is created for anaerobic bacteria like botulism to form.
It’s a rare type of food poisoning, but it’s deadly.
Heat And Light
Light oxidizes wheat, so avoid clear containers unless you plan on covering them or storing them in a dark cupboard or pantry.
Also, avoid storing wheat near heat sources like a stovetop, wood stove, or any appliance that gives off heat.
4 Signs Wheat Gone Bad
- Wheat should smell fresh and sweet or have no smell
- The musty, foul, or rancid smell is a sure sign of bad or fermenting wheat berries
- Look for heavy powders and broken or eaten grains of wheat which may be a sign of bug damage
- Dark spots or discoloration may be a sign of mold or mildew
Thanks for stopping by Ready Squirrel! If you have any questions please leave them in the comments.
Keep on prepping.
Best Regards, Scott
Sources
A Guide To Food Storage For Emergencies, Utah State University, PDF
Related Articles
Oxygen Absorbers and Food Storage, Scott Foster, Readysquirrel.com
What’s The Difference Between Food and Non-Food Grade Buckets, Scott Foster, Readysquirrel.com
Mylar Bags: The Secret Weapon Of Food Storage, Scott Foster, Readysquirrel.com
Food Stockpile: One Person For Three Months, Scott Foster, Readysquirrel.com
What Is Long-Term Food Storage?, Scott Foster, Readysquirrel.com
