Dry Canning vs. Mylar Bags

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For those looking for dry food storage, these are the two best options humanity has currently created. For those that are un-privy of what dry canning is, it is a method of food preservation for items like wheat, grains, and similar when placed into a specialized jar.

These canning cars are then heated to a specific temperature and cooked until the dry goods are ‘dehydrated,’ in which they can then be placed into storage for the long term.

Mylar bags will be equally as effective at storage, utilizing space-age materials to create a package that can protect the dry goods from moisture and sunlight UV ray radiation damage.

What are the Similarities?

The first and most apparent likeness will be these two’s ability to keep and preserve foods in the long term.

When it comes to dry goods’ long-term storage, the mason jar and mylar bag will stand together, apart from the rest of the products on the market; each can easily keep an item like dry beans for over fifty years when kept in the right storage environment.

Both go through an airtight sealing process that will effectively create a vacuum environment on the inside, which creates the perfect circumstances for food storage longevity. It will be the differences that separate these two items from each other.

 

What are the Differences?

The biggest difference will be the materials of which these two items are made to start a Mason jar, and most canning jar solutions will be made with glass and a specialized metallic lid.

The Mylar bags are made with a space-material similar to tin foil or aluminum, which seals everything out, including photonic radiation from the sun.

This leads us to our second difference, solar radiation protection. Mason jars and most canning jars are made to be clear so that the users can see what is inside without having to open the container.

However, this does leave the products vulnerable to the sun, to which Mylar’s thicker products will effectively shield out the damaging UV rays and other radiation from the sun.

 

Pros and Cons: Dry Canning vs. Mylar bags

The overwhelming pro for dry canning will be the ability to see what is inside without opening the package, and when kept in a cool and controlled environment, shielded from the sun, there is hardly anything to complain about when using this method of good dry storage.

The con is that glass is vulnerable to breaking, fracture, and to the sun’s damaging UV rays and other radiation particles.

The pro for Mylar will be the nearly indestructible design of the packaging, which requires extreme pressures and sharp objects to cut through the materials. The cons will be Mylar’s inability to handle colder environments, like the freezer, which requires an innovation to fix.

 

Which One is Easier to Maintain?

These two products will have the ability to place and forget, but when it comes to maintenance, it comes down to a few factors.

First, Mylar requires very little maintenance. In fact, there is little more than adding Oxygen Absorbers and keeping the packages out of the freezer to care for these packages.

Canning jars will need to be stored on something solid that does not wobble because of the danger to glass when it falls from certain heights. There will also be a need to shield them from the sun and anything that might knock them from their perch.

 

Which One Lasts Longer?

Glass Mason jars and Mylar bags are both designed to last entire lifetimes when the right conditions are met. In addition, mylar bags are nearly indestructible.

As mentioned earlier, it takes immense amounts of pressure or extremely sharp objects to cause punctures or any sort of damage to the packaging.

Glass jars, like all glass objects, will be vulnerable to breakage from blunt forces and from stopping after a long fall, which leads us to the conclusion that either will last as long as the other, but certain conditions can cause the glass jar to break when the Mylar bag will not.

 

Final Thoughts on Dry Canning vs. Mylar Bags

Both of these food storage methods are solid and work. Mason Jars have been the proven method for preppers and others requiring long-term food storage solutions.

However, when it came to dry canning, nothing else on the market could compare until Mylar bags came along.

The Mylar bag and canning jar will be the only two solutions you will need for long-term food storage, where the Mylar cannot go the canning jar can (the freezer, for example), and the Mylar bag can leave storage without risking damage to the product.

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