Food items like rice, oats, pasta, beans, and legumes are often viewed as prepper staples, but there are so many other items that you should be adding to your DIY long-term food storage plan.
One of these items is baking soda!
Yes, that’s right— baking soda is an essential component to any emergency supply. If you aren’t storing it already, you should stock up on baking soda today because it can be crucial to thriving in an emergency.
In this blog post, we will discuss some of the different ways that baking soda can help you tackle different SHTF situations.
Baking Soda: What is it?
This food item is also known as sodium carbonate or bicarbonate of soda, which is a white crystalline salt that is basic in nature. It will react with heat and acidic components. During this reaction, the baking soda releases carbon dioxide that causes effervescence.
Note: Baking soda is very different from baking powder in terms of its composition and uses. However, both can be used in baking effectively.
Shelf-Life of Baking Soda
When you buy baking soda at the grocery store, it will have a best before date. The best before date typically reflects a 3-year shelf-life, but the truth is that baking soda never goes bad— it only loses potency.
To check whether your baking soda will still be effective, you can mix it in warm water or pure lemon juice to see if it becomes effervescent.
In simpler terms, potent baking soda should give off bubbles and appear fizzy if it is mixed into either lemon juice or warm water.
Even if the effervescence appears to be less dramatic than it was when you purchased it, the baking soda can still be used effectively. You might just need to add a little bit more baking soda than usual to get the desired effect.
Storage of Baking Soda
Baking soda can become clumpy if it is exposed to moisture, so you must store it in airtight containers or Mylar bags.
If you want to store baking soda in the most efficient way possible, you should use a food-grade bucket lined with Mylar bags to store it. A quality Mylar bag will block the baking soda from moisture, oxygen, and light, and the food-grade bucket will provide additional protection from rodents and insects.
5 Reasons Why Storing Baking Soda is Helpful During Emergencies
- Use for Leavening Baked Goods
Baking soda is often used as a leavening agent in baked goods as it releases carbon dioxide, thus leavening the baked goods.
So, if you want to bake, whether that be in an emergency or in your everyday life, you should make it a priority to add baking soda to your long-term food storage plan.
Substitutes to baking soda, such as baking powder, can help you achieve a somewhat similar effect when baking. However, we highly recommend that you always keep baking soda on hand, as it is much more useful across the board.
Keep reading to learn more about the surprising ways that you can utilize baking soda!
- Cooking and Food Preparation
If you thought baking soda was just for baking, you thought wrong! Baking soda can help you with cooking and food preparation. For example, you can add baking soda to breading batter with an acidic medium to make crispy fried chicken, potatoes, or other veggies.
Believe it or not, you can even turn spaghetti into ramen-textured noodles if you just add baking soda to the water before boiling the spaghetti.
A lot of preppers stock up on beans, so you might be excited for this last tip— you can save up to an hour of cooking time if you soak your beans in water with baking soda. So, if beans are one of your emergency food supply staples, you should save this article in case SHTF!
- Maintaining Personal Hygiene
If you have a limited stock of personal hygiene items, but a sufficient stock of baking soda, you are in luck! Baking soda can be used as a substitute for some personal hygiene products.
For example, you can use baking soda as a dry shampoo or body deodorant.
Another way that you can use baking soda is by mixing it with water to substitute toothpaste or mouth wash. For these substitutes, you can mix baking soda into a thick paste to create your own whitening toothpaste, or you can use it as a mouthwash by mixing ½ teaspoon baking soda with some warm water.
- First Aid and Medical Uses
Baking soda can be used for some medical purposes, such as preventing heartburn, treating bee stings and bug bites, reducing heat rashes and sunburns, relieving itchy skin and burns, and so much more.
If you want to be prepared for all emergency situations, we highly recommend that you create your own first aid kit with a large quantity of baking soda and other items, like bandages, Neosporin, eye wash, eye pads, and more.
- House Cleaning
Baking soda can be useful for cleaning so many different parts of your home.
You can use baking soda to neutralize odors in your fridge, garage, and even your trash can. It can also remove stains on your carpet or sheets, and serve as an all-natural, non-toxic cleaning product for surfaces, floors, tiles, pots, pans, skillets, grills, fireplaces, and so much more.
Baking soda can also be used as a DIY laundry cleaner and kitchen soap if you are really in a pinch!
Our last tip for cleaning with baking soda might surprise you because it actually has nothing to do with house cleaning! You can use the odor neutralizing power of baking soda to rescue stinky shoes.
Simply wrap 2 tablespoons of baking soda in cheesecloth or another fabric and secure it with an elastic band to create a baking soda bag. You can then place these bags inside of your shoes when you’re not wearing them to keep them fresh and odor-free.
Bottom Line
You need to make baking soda a staple item for your long-term food storage plan!
Baking soda is truly a necessary addition to your emergency preps. Although it is often used for baking, there are so many other ways that you can utilize this miracle product.
If you are looking for strong, high-quality Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers to store your baking soda, check out Wallaby’s 3-layer Mylar bags.
We are industry leaders, offering the highest quality Mylar bags on the market, as well as tips and advice to make your long-term food storage plan a success.
Head to our website and click “Food Storage Tips” to learn more!SHARE:
