How to Select the Best Emergency Food

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Sentry18

Sentry18

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https://www.itstactical.com/survival/how-to-select-the-best-emergency-food/

How to Select the Best Emergency Food
Ounces equal pounds and pounds equal pain, so find out how many calories you’re getting from your emergency food and how much it weighs. Divide the item’s calories by the weight in ounces to find the calories per ounce so you can compare different foods. Remember to check the serving size on the nutrition label to ensure you’re getting the total calorie count for a package and not just a serving.

It might be tempting to just stock up on one item with a large calorie per ounce value like peanut butter, but you should always be aware of palate fatigue. While you may be planning to eat nothing but a single item, mixing it up makes you more likely to eat an acceptable amount and can even provide a slight morale boost during a disaster.

The final thing to consider for emergency food is the shelf life and reaction to temperature change. Ready to eat food doesn’t require cooking, but is more affected by temperature. Dehydrated meals can be made at home, but offer less nutrition and shelf life than their freeze-dried counterparts. Whatever you choose, ensure that you’re regularly inspecting your food to know it’s still good to go.

 
I just saw a one person three day bucket at Walmart. Breakfast oatmeal. Can't remember what lunch was, but dinner was potato soup. A koolaid type drink mix was included. Not many calories at all. Very bland, and you could store those things yourself and save some money. I like doing taste tests of different foods. Backpackers Pantry brand is pretty good. Mt House is ok, too. I would absolutely count calories of items.
 
Amish Heart said:
I just saw a one person three day bucket at Walmart. Breakfast oatmeal. Can't remember what lunch was, but dinner was potato soup. A koolaid type drink mix was included. Not many calories at all. Very bland, and you could store those things yourself and save some money. I like doing taste tests of different foods. Backpackers Pantry brand is pretty good. Mt House is ok, too. I would absolutely count calories of items.
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Total calories is indeed the best way to gauge these things, along with nutrients and protein. One thing that sold me on the Augason Farms buckets was the high calorie count (1,800 a day x 30) and 20+ year shelf life, but also the fact that each bucket came with a water filter and a fuel source.
 
Amish Heart said:
I like Augason Farms, too. Good company.
I wonder if Wise Foods ever corrected their problems with calorie counts?
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I know during the lawsuit over that problem they handed over their customer lists to the gov't. After that most people I know refused to buy their stuff. Not sure how it all worked out.
 
If we're talking about food for my backpack, that's one thing. But food storage at BOL or home... I never have found a freeze-dried meal or MRE I liked enough to change the approach of just socking away and rotating what we normally eat. To me, the best emergency food is the same food you were eating before the emergency broke out. It's a little extra work to manage the rotation well, but it's worked out in our house.
 
I make my own biscuits, rolls, hotcakes and bread from scratch using sourdough. This may sound lame but it is great! I can store wheat and oat berries for centuries without losing nutritional content.
I don't have to store yeast, baking soda or baking powder for leavening. To make good bread it takes flour (your choice of what kind) water and salt. The same ingredients will make rolls and biscuits but hot cakes need milk and sugar added. You can also make cinnamon rolls, bagles, cakes and a number of other bread type foods. You never run out of starter and even if you screw up and forget it is a short two week process to make new starter from flour and water.
Things that store "forever". Salt, Sugar, Honey, Wheat berries, Most grain berries, Water, Canned or dry non-fat milk.
If you grow berries and herbs you can add more flavoring to your breads. How does a strawberry upside down cake sound? How about onion garlic bread for your chili or spaghetti?
Blueberry pancakes are one of my favorites but I love fresh sourdough bread from the oven or dutch oven. Stuffed pocket breads are also a good change. What would you stuff yours with?
 
Sentry18 said:
Total calories is indeed the best way to gauge these things, along with nutrients and protein. One thing that sold me on the Augason Farms buckets was the high calorie count (1,800 a day x 30) and 20+ year shelf life, but also the fact that each bucket came with a water filter and a fuel source.
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Which buckets are you talking about? I'd like to check them out
 
Amish Heart said:
True, to some extent. I wouldn't just stockpile just rice and beans, tho. I have a hard time even getting my family to use up leftovers.
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I bet if your family went 3-4 days with no food, those leftovers would suddenly disappear in a flash of forks and knives. ;)

85-90% of the time my family eats fresh meat and fresh (often raw) fruits and vegetables, those do not store well long term. Not including the 45 days+ worth of food we have on hand in our kitchen, fridge, freezers, and pantry we have well over a years worth of long term food stores. And that is for an estimated 12 people eating. Most of it is dehydrated foods (30 day buckets and No. 10 cans of mostly meat and vegetable products), beans, rice, dried corn, honey, salt, ration bars, homemade MRE's, production MRE's, and canned goods (as in canned at home in jars and purchased in metallic cans). We do rotate some of those products for use, but not very much. More often I sell off things that are 75% through their life cycle and then purchase replacements. It is surprisingly easy to sell a case of MRE's 6-9 months from expiration for almost what I paid for it, even while clearly indicating it's "best by" date. Same goes for the ration bars.
 
We can meats and veggies and make jam from our fruits and berries. We can potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash and pumpkin as well. I don't know how good the commercially available "pepper" foods are or if they taste as good as our home grown foods. I would have to sample them to see. I can see that happening in the future as we are getting to an age where it is a lot of work to grow our own in the garden but as long s we can do it we will keep going.
 
SheepDog said:
I don't know how good the commercially available "pepper" foods are or if they taste as good as our home grown foods.
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I assure you they are not as good, probably not even close. But they do have a long shelf life and are easier to acquire in quantities. So it's a trade off.
 
The kids love maple oatmeal. I don't much like oatmeal, the texture is.....wrong. I'll eat it if that's all there is but it just feels wrong.
 
I have always liked oatmeal. I was practically raised on it. Blue berries, strawberries, raisins or maple syrup. Maple syrup is the only maple flavoring that I have.
 
I grew up eating oatmeal. Would we sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon. Never heard of putting fruit in it or syrup on it until I was long grown up and gone.
 
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