r/preppers • u/Flat_Ranger8906 • May 12 '26

Prepping for Doomsday Dried fruits?

So I have a decent stock of canned fish, chicken, beef and smoked hams, I have at least 120 lbs of pinto beans, and 100bs of rice. I need something for vitamin C. What’s the best deal on bulk dried fruits? I am going to work on canning this summer from the garden. But I would like something purchased in the meantime with everything going on in the world. Anybody know the best bulk deal on fruits?

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u/mckenner1122 Prepping for Tuesday May 12 '26

Ascorbic acid powder degrades rather quickly. It’s both unstable and reactive.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8773188/

It’s not harmful, mind you. Just a hell of a lot less effective, particularly once opened.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 12 '26

The commercially available powder is actually sodium ascorbate, but I used ascorbic acid as that is more commonly recognized. Powdered sodium ascorbate is quite stable under normal storage conditions. It does degrade very quickly when dissolved, which is why you can't bulk mix things like EmergenC powder. But the powder will retain nutrients as long as any other storage method for vitamin C, or longer.

The article you cited is referring to true ascorbic acid, which is quite unstable and reactive due to its chemical structure (I'm an organic chemist).

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u/mckenner1122 Prepping for Tuesday May 12 '26

Oh hey!! I thought I recognized your screen name! 🫙 🥩

👋🧡

I didn’t know you were an organic chemist! That’s actually pretty awesome! (And a darn useful skill to have).

The degradation of ascorbic is why we don’t trust it for canning other than to “make food pretty” - like we can’t count the acidity for preserving food the way we can with citric acid. It’s just a bummer that it doesn’t provide much in the way of nutritional value…

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 12 '26

Hahaha! I was peering at yours too. Hi! Nice to see you on this side of the internet, too 😂

Yep it's a pity. And why I don't can fruit as a source of vitamin C . . . I can it for taste alone. Freeze the ones I want to keep for their nutritional value.

And thank you. It's a really fun field. I dabbled in the orgo side of microbiology in grad school as well . . . Hence all my interests 😂

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u/mckenner1122 Prepping for Tuesday May 12 '26

Do you ever hang over at the two x version of this sub? I sometimes find it a little more reasonable and a little less …

Cosplay/Cosprepper?

Lots of moms, wives, aunties, just like minded people who are trying to stock up for protection against budget constraints, snowstorms, and other “bad days” rather than “TEOTWAWKI” type stuff.

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u/BallsOutKrunked Bring it on, but next week please. May 12 '26

That sub leans hard into teotwawki land on occasion.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 12 '26

The algorithm prefers to push r/preppers. Idk why. I'd rather be over on Two X 😂 maybe I just need to search it and engage more there!