How do YOU keep your fish food fresh??

[PokeSephiroth]

So, I'm sure many of you have bought fish food from KensFish, and have come to some sort of problem with keeping the food fresh as long as possible.

Those reclosable "ziplock" bags most of the food they come in doesn't cut it... usually the quality of the food (especially fish flakes) tends to go downhill after a couple months upon opening it, so I'm curious if there are other ways to keep that from happening. Luckily, I go through a lot of various fish foods pretty fast, but it wouldn't hurt to find better ways to preserving the quality of the fish food.

I've thought about putting fish flakes into an air tight container that also creates a vacuum inside. I figure that less oxygen in the container, will also prevent the food from going stale. You can find various food containers out there that have some kind of "button" that you can push on the lid, that pushes air out and creates a nice vacuum seal.

I've also heard people putting their dry foods in the fridge, but really... I don't know if that really helps at all, unless the foods already contain moisture. So, that's out of the question.

I'm hoping that this topic will provide ideas for other people to storing their fish food in better containers instead of just keeping them in the resealable bags they come with.
So...
How do YOU keep your food fresh?

 

[pbmax]

I use the freezer for long-term storage. I use ziplocs or the resealable bags they come in, sometimes both; I haven't had a problem with frost or freezer burn.

For short term use I have little mini rubbermaid containers that I keep on the rack above my tanks. These seem to do the trick - no mold or other spoilage that I can tell.

Edit: These guys - http://amzn.com/B0012DMSTK

 

[PokeSephiroth]

See, I was thinking more of the lines of something like this, where it has a button on the lid that pushes air out, creating a vacuum. But maybe that's a little overkill. Heh heh. Especially for the price of the containers.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VJ08X4/ref ... B006WH4W3G

 

[pbmax]

You, sir, are far more swank than I.

 

[Paintguy]

I keep the pellets in their vacuum sealed packages in the fridge ( wife loves this ) until I need them, then break them down to zip lock bags back in the fridge to make them last as long as possible.

 

[Betty]

I buy my food in 5 lb. buckets and store those in the freezer, refilling a normal sized container as needed.

 

[DMD123]

I just use ziplocks but Ive always wanted a food saver...
http://www.foodsaver.com/defaultstart?k ... bc22f18e5b

 

[Ali]

Poke, those containers are cool put actually don't vacuum seal at all. If that's what you really want a "FoodSaver" system will do it well. But they aren't cheap, and the canister units are going to be extra.

In protein-rich foods with low moisture your two main enemies are light and oxygen. Air (and the O2 it contains) makes a dang good oxidizer, causing fats to go rancid. Light will also degrades vitamins, minerals, and volatile oils. Any way you can limit exposure to those two things will help And cold shuts down the enzymes that degrade proteins.

Soooo, if you have a vacuum chamber kept in a pitch black environment at -50 degrees Celsius your fish food will last for ages. I just keep it in a dark drawer under the tanks, and if I were to buy in bulk I'd squeeze air out of the containers and keep them in the freezer.

 

[PokeSephiroth]

Ooooh neat, I learned a bunch of things from that

What about these containers?? They're meant for keeping coffee grounds from going rancid...
http://www.amazon.com/Tightvac-6-Ounce- ... +container

Here's a quick video that shows how they work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Frq2pZDEb0

Looks like the most practical thing for me to do is to keep the bulk of my foods in the freezer, and just take a small amount that I can put in another container that will last me for a couple weeks or so.

 

[PokeSephiroth]

........ I just realized that those don't keep a vacuum seal. UGHHHHHHHHHHHH............

 

[Betty]

I have a Foodsaver that we use for freezing veggies from the garden. I don't use it for my fish food though. I do have the food in the bucket in a soft plastic bag and get most of the air out of that before I close the bucket.

If you don't have a lot of other uses for a vacuum sealer system and don't want to spend a lot of money, I think Ziploc makes a vacuum seal bag that comes with a hand pump. I don't know how well they work, but I'm sure there are reviews or videos out there. The bags are reuseable so that would save some money as well. (I wonder if vacuum sealing flakes would crush them to powder?)

Found a video that shows two different types of hand pumps.
[youtube]dZLRvKwYtzg[/youtube]