Food Storage Tip: Blue Tape Labels


Today I want to share a tool I use for making food storage easier. It’s simple and inexpensive, and if you’ve painted recently, you might even have some still lying around. Yes, I’m talking about blue painter’s tape.

I started using blue tape to hang posters and pictures in college. A few years ago I realized that blue tape would also work well for labeling containers of food. Since it’s designed to thoroughly stick but still be gentle on walls, it adheres to containers well but comes off easily and cleanly when you want to remove it.

I mainly use my blue tape labels to label containers of food before putting them in my freezer. I stuff a lot of pre-made food into my freezer and it’s so nice to know what’s in a container without having to open the lid and peer inside. (In the instances where sight alone isn’t enough to identify the mystery food, labeling things also saves me having to smell and make an educated guess. Am I the only one who does this?)

The blue tape labels are also super useful for marking down the start date on my various ferments. I don’t do this for foods with short culturing times, like kefir, but I do find it very helpful for longer ferments like sauerkraut, kombucha or beet kvass. Attaching the start date to the jar means there’s very little chance I’ll lose track of when the ferment started culturing, allowing me to more effectively judge when it’s likely to be finished.

To make the labels, I write on the tape using a ballpoint pen or permanent marker then stick that piece of tape onto the food container.

I also recently discovered that these labels can be reused many times before they lose their stickiness. The ink also lasts for quite a while but you can always rewrite the label if it starts to fade. It helps the long-lastingness if you remember to remove the label before putting the container in the dishwasher, but I forget all the time and they still fare quite well.

I’ve started sticking my used labels inside one of my kitchen cabinets so they’re handy when I need one. Since I constantly freeze certain staples this means a lot of the time I can just reuse an old label instead of making a new one. Ahh, sometimes it’s the little things that make me happy. 🙂

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

What tips do you have for simplifying food storage?

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4 Responses to Food Storage Tip: Blue Tape Labels

  1. I do this same thing, but with masking tape. It really helps my guys know the difference between the salsa and spaghetti sauce. :0)
  2. Robert says:
    I need to lable food for food allergies. And I have found that tape is simply not reliable for this purpose. I have been using preprinted food storage containers called "SafeKeepers". I bought them at safekeepers.us.
  3. Julia says:
    Omg, this idea is just brilliant! I can't believe I've never thought of it! When I start freezing next month blue tape, I'm coming for ya!

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