Issue with Moisture in my Breakfast Mix

Maybe try an experiment and make separate bags seal for each ingredient.  Or maybe each ingredient and fruit if you need fruit as the indicator.

That’s a good idea. Thank you. I’m actually using the superfood creamer in my coffee packets with some espresso instant coffee and those packets vacuum packed to a week at a time. Those packets have a crispy powdery feeling to them still so it’s not the creamer I would believe.

I decided to open one of the packets up that I thought looked “wet” and to my surprise the powdered stuff was all still dry however my concern about the fruit was correct. It had slightly absorbed some kind of moisture from one of the other ingredients or the air at the time of my packaging. The blueberries had the consistency of a very dry raisin, but a little bit of squish nonetheless. To my surprise they actually crisped back up a bit after being exposed to the air. So I’m feeling a little more relieved about them being just fine.

The fruits that I used are all from Harmony House (dehydrated cherries, blueberries, apricots, and mangos for a little variety in my breakfasts) a respected dehydrated food company so I’m sure there was no moisture in the fruit when I  first put them into the bags.

Anybody else have an issue with fruit seeming to absorb something like this?

Thanks again!

-Scooter

I think there’s a reason companies like Packit Gourmet include a clay desiccant packet in their packages.  If you’re doing a lot of this it might be worth looking at some.

Yes, thank you! Very much agreed. I will definitely be putting a desiccant packet in my future meal packs.

The Chia seeds and the dried fruit are NOT dry, especially if the fruit is just normal dried fruit from a supermarket. They both contain moisture. You have sealed that moisture in.

I don’t think the stuff will be safe for 2 months unless you freeze the bags down to -15 C immediately. Even then, NO guarantees something bad could not happen. Halfway through a trip, in the middle of the wilderness, is NOT a good place to discover food poisoning.

Cheers

@rcaffin

Thanks so much for the input. No doubt, that is certainly not the place to get sick which is why I’ve gone through the task of putting this to a query with these forums. I have been doing my homework here so you can imagine my surprise, stress and dismay when I noticed that my fruit had gone a bit mushy in vac sealed bags.

In fact my fruit is dry, it’s not standard “dried fruit” you’d get at a super market. It’s fully dehydrated. Crispy, bone dry. Or rather at least it was when I put it in my vacuum sealer bags with my other ingredients.

Now I think maybe you’ve led me to the culprit however and I thank you for it. Perhaps it is the Chia Seeds that have provided the moisture. I guess I just assumed that something in bagged seed form was a dry food. I’ve never heard that raw chia seeds are not a dry food. Would you be able to elaborate on this? Thanks so much for weighing in.

I had better also point out that some plastic bags are NOT proof against water vapour getting through them. This is why you find ‘dried foods’ in the much more $$ aluminised mylar bags.

Cheers

Thanks,

That’s interesting to consider as well. The bags I got are a commercial grade 4mil seven ply bag.

Dunno. Problem.
I should add that I have no trouble with my packaging. I do up one serve of muesli per day in a plas bag, and only roll the bags up into sausage shapes – no sealing. Then I put maybe 7 of these ‘sausages’ into another plas bag (unsealed) for their protection. Never had any problems with that.

Cheers

Thanks,

I can appreciate that. Would you trust that muesli packaged like that for two months or more? Perhaps I’m over complicating my breakfasts.

I make my own muesli in a 20 L drum, filling it up. A drum-full lasts me for about 3 months. The drum does have a clip-on lid, but the rim has cracks and it is not airtight by any means. The real reason for the lid is to keep the weevils out!
Anyhow, no, I have never had any problems.

Cheers

Ha! That’s a lot of muesli! Good to hear. Out of curiosity do you put any dried fruits or raisins in it in the drum? Thanks again for tossing me some ideas.

– Scooter

Hi Scott
Roughly, off the top of my head:
5 kg raw oats
0.5 kg AllBran
0.5 kg wheat germ (if I can get it)
1 kg sultanas
0.5 kg raisins
0.5 kg currants
1 kg dried figs, chopped up
1 kg dried apricots, chopped up
0.5 kg dried apples, chopped up
1 kg dates, chopped up
0.5 kg unsalted peanuts
0.25 kg crushed walnuts
0.2 kg slivered almonds
0.25 kg sunflower seeds
other nuts, depending on what’s on the shelves.
I tried dried cranberries, but they are awfully $$.

No sugar, no powdered milk, no synthetics.

At home, a big ladle full in a bowl, then unfiltered apple juice, a large dollop of home-made natural yoghurt, and a heap of chopped fresh fruit salad.

When out walking, the fresh stuff out of the fridge is missed, sadly, and I use water instead of AJ. In winter in the snow I warm the water slightly: very woosey.

Cheers

That’s a fine recipe! I’ll have to give it a go. Thanks for your help!

Scott, Definitely would agree it’s probably the dried fruit.  unless it’s freeze-dried it could have up to 20% water content still depending on the type, Freeze dried will have less than 5%.  If dehydrating yourself you could have as much as 30% still.

Second what others have said,

1) Use Mylar bags, heavy vacuum seal bags, or last resort Freezer ziplok (not regular ones).  Though is sounds like your bags are pretty thick so may be how they seal

2) Add a desiccant pack (just make sure to remove before cooking) or separate any possibly “moist” items like the fruit, seeds, nuts, and maybe sugar.

3) for shelf life you need to worry about oxygen as well as moisture.  All the retail meals have an oxidizer packet in them and you can get those and Mylar bags on Amazon.

Personally, I don’t repackage foods that are going to be stored that way for more than a couple weeks without vacuum sealing with an oxidizer and always keep “wetter” ingredients separate.

unless it’s freeze-dried it could have up to 20% water content
Buy some ‘dried apricots’ and squeeze them. Sure, the vendor has reduced the water content, but the apricots are still very wet.

Food which has been really dried is brittle. Without any water to lubricate the cells, it does not flex. Have a look at some meat lumps in a commercial pack of freeze-dry: they look like a brittle bit of sponge. That is DRY.

Does not mean that so-called ‘dried’ apricots are not tasty: they are.

Cheers

What is really interesting in this post is not that there is water inside the bag, its that the dried fruit seems to be absorbing the water. As has been mentioned, the dried fruit is the most  likely culprit to have brought the moisture into the bag. If so where is it absorbing moisture from?

Perhaps it is the low pressure environment evaporating some of the remaining moisture causing the fruit to expand. If that is the case it doesn’t sound like a food safety issue to store it that way up to 2 months. Roger’s storage technique is much less rigorous and seems to work just fine. On the other hand as Roger mentioned the trail is not the best time to discover your food has been incubating bacteria for the past two months.

Vacuum seal some fruit by itself and see what happens. Also seal some with Chia to rule them out as the culprit. Order some desiccate packets if you haven’t already. When are you leaving?

Roger’s storage technique is much less rigorous and seems to work just fine. 

I should point out that there are a LOT of rolled oats in the bin along with the ‘dried’ apricots etc. The oats will absorb any free water. The bin is ‘closed’ but not sealed, and I keep removing the top layer (for breakfast).

One thing I doubt very much is that the ‘dried’ fruit is absorbing water from elsewhere. It would be the wettest stuff in there right from the start.

Does the OP having his food in a sealed bag make any difference? I don’t know. Would it be worth while putting the food in a plas bag for protection but not sealing the bag? I just roll the bag up when packing for trips. The food can still ‘breathe’ I imagine. The main reason for the bag is to keep the food from getting wet from the outside. (Yeah, I am a bit paranoid.)

Cheers