Good food storage guideines include food rotation, shelf life, food safety, and how to pack food for long term storage. The best guideline for good food storage is to store what you eat. Yes, it's a good idea to store wheat for long term use as many foods contain wheat in some form. But don't count on it for your main diet if your family is not used to eating a lot of wheat. But DO learn to cook with it. Store a variety of foods like fruits, vegetables, snacks, and desserts along with your staples of wheat, beans, powdered milk, and sugar.

Rotate Your Food Storage. It's necessary to rotate your food storage, using the older products before newer ones. To make sure that food stored in the refrigerator, freezer, or pantry is eaten within the expiration dates, practice FIFO (First-In-First-Out). When you are putting away the groceries, put the newest items behind the existing food, whether it is in the refrigerator, pantry, or food storage shelves. This will save you money by reducing the amount of food that spoils. Leftovers should be put into clean, sanitized, shallow containers, and covered, labeled, dated, and put in the freezer if you have one. Generally, leftovers in the refrigerator should be tossed after 48 hours.

Know the Shelf Life of Foods. Food storage guidelines state that no food's shelf life is indefinite, no matter how it is packaged. Freeze-dried food however, can be stored up to 25 years. The shelf life of a food does not mean how long you can keep it on the shelf without having to actually eat it. A better meaning for shelf life in a preparedness context is that you have learned to store your food properly so that it will "give you life" after it has been on your shelf for a while.

Optimal Canned & Dry Food Storage Conditions: Cool 35° to 70° (cooler is better). Dry 50% to 70% humidity. You may store food in less-than-optimum conditions, but it must be used sooner.

How to Purify Water. Chlorine Dioxide Tablets. Chlorine dioxide is a well established disinfectant and is free of iodine and active chlorine. (Although chlorine dioxide has the word chlorine in its name, the two forms of chlorine have completely different chemical structures. The oxygen radically changes the molecule and creates completely different chemical behaviors and by-products.) They have a shelf life of 3-4 years, depending on the brand. Manufactured by Portable Aqua, Katadyn Micropur, and Aquamira, these tablets kill bacteria, viruses and cysts, including Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

Giardia and Cryptosporidiuum are two waterborne diseases that are often found in swimming pools and hot tubs as well as in rural settings. They are spread by human and animal feces and are hard to destroy.