When preparing food for g-tube feeding, I am particularly careful to avoid contamination. My system is what I am comfortable with to prevent spoilage. Any recipes I make include carefully cleaned vegetables, thoroughly cooked proteins, clean containers, etc.
After preparing the foods, they go immediately into a clean container, are covered and stored in refrigerator or freezer. I never use a container of food that has been refrigerated for more than 3 days. First of all, I do not want any bacteria to proliferate and make my daughter sick. Three days may seem a very short time and overly cautious, but it is what I am comfortable with.
I have a freezer in my garage to store containers of food. I date them with labels and a permanent marker so that I know how long they’ve been in there. If I found one that was older than 6 months, I’d probably discard it. Note: permanent marker can be removed from labels or container lids (in my experience) with an ink eraser.
My freezer is NOT a frost free freezer. I have to defrost it once a year and clean it. The reason for NOT getting a self-defrosting freezer? The temperature varies too much for my comfort level. The way a freezer stays frost free is by turning on a heating coil to melt ice off the freezer coils. This puts the food in the freezer through temperature changes and although there may be many sources saying this is completely safe, I opted for a freezer without this feature. (A standard freezer also costs less to operate.)
