Survival Food - Freeze Dried & MRE

Sorted through 50 blog and forum posts that refer to freeze dried food in the last week.  Selected 3 below that  have meaningful information on preparedness and freeze dried food references;

Food Storage Dilemmas -Freeze dried Vs. Dehydrated-both flawed!

This is a terrific forum discussion with a lot of great opinions on pros and cons of freeze dried food versus other survival food storage approaches.  Concerns with high sodium levels of prepared food are expressed.  If you can adjust your lifestyle to eating rice and beans and storing these food regularly than there is an advantage in price and health. However the fact is that most people are not likely to adjust to the change and be left later in an unprepared state. The value of freeze dried food reserve is you “don’t have to eat it till you need it”. So people who buy freeze dried food have less risk of being caught unprepared. However if you can adjust “rice and beans” it will decrease the amount of freeze dried emergency food you need to store.

Survival Kits

“Target Woman” talks about things you need to take into account in preparing your survival kit.

the key to survival in the wild is preparation. Where to start and what are the factors that influence purchase of survival products for outdoors or wilderness travel?

Emergency Preparedness - It’s for You (And Me)

This blog post has a section at the bottom “5 MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE WITH EMERGENCY SUPPLIES” that is worth reading.

Back in the ‘Y2k’ days, our family prepared and urged others to do the same, not because of fear but so that we could help ourselves and others if there was a need

If you have a good article, blog post, or forum discussion on freeze dried food you would like me to point out please let me know in a comment or in an email to servu@bulk-survival-food.com. 

The ReadyStore has an online offer to save $100 on new products when you order over $1000 of new products until February 16th, 2009.

Some of the new survival food and products include;

Quad-X-treme Auto Emergency Fuel & Survival Kit

ULTIMATE 3-Month Supply of Freeze Dried Food - #10 CANS

1 Month MRE Supply

3 Month MRE Supply

6 Month MRE Supply

1 Year MRE Supply

MSR Reactor™ Emergency Stove

The 3 month MRE would be a great compliment to a freeze dried food reserve for a family of 3 or 4. Freeze dried food is the best choice for cost and taste.

However MRE has added benefits of

• flameless heater pouches available that, with a little water added, heat the meal in 10 minutes
• No drinking water and nothing else needs to be added to prepare meals
• ideal for trips longer than a few hours becuase they need zero preparation

I read these words on the page “Emergency Survival Kit” on KGMB’s website, a TV station in Hawaii. This is the same information on emergency kits you will get from the American Red Cross or FEMA.

What “cycle” actually means here is that you throw out the food and water every 6 months.

In terms of food, the real answer on how often you need to “cycle” really depends on the 2 things.

First the type of food you chose to put in your emergency kit will determine how often you need to throw out the food in the kit and replace it with a fresh food supply.

If you choice was to store energy bars, every 6 months will likely be the case.

If you choose MRE, then the food will store 5-7 years so you will not need to throw it out every 6 months. This information should help you decide on which food to buy, as MRE will be a better choice if you include the cost of throwing out 10-14 supplies of energy bars or other food you replace every 6 months (if you remember to do it, if you don’t you will have a different problem when disaster strikes).

However as stated above how often you need to cycle the food in a survival kit depends on two things.

The second thing is the storage conditions for your survival kit. If you store your kit in a cool dry place your MRE will last up to 7 years.

However if you keep a kit in the trunk of your car, the high temperatures will dramatically reduce the shelf life of MRE or energy bars. I am not saying don’t keep a kit in your car, it is important to be ready wherever you may be in a disaster, but you may need to make extra effort to replace food if you do.

Daytime temperatures in the trunk of a car can get well over 120 degrees F on even a warm day. Below is an MRE shelf life chart based on studies by the U.S. Army’s NATIC Research Laboratories.

If you store MRE in a place that the temperature is elevated for any sustained period of time then you will need to replace your food more often. The data below is useful, but not a guarantee of product, you will have to refer to the manufacturer of your food for accurate information on that specific product.

The American Red Cross provides a list of items for survival backpacks, however few have taken the time to make one. (see their page for Survival Kit list)

I am wondering how many prefer to make their own rather than buying a 72 hour kit with most of the items in it. If people say they will make their own, do they actually get around to doing it?

[poll=3]

72 Hour Survival Kits

Having a good 72 hour survival kit ready at all times can be make a huge difference in the event of an emergency or disaster. One backpack can carry all you need if you pack the right items in it.

Rather than having one 2-person kit or one large four-person kit, I recommend getting 2-3 one person kits that you keep in each car and at home. You never know where you will be when you need them so I believe this is the best strategy.

The best one person kit I could find is the Executive 72 hour survival kit with solar radio upgrade.

This kit contains;

• Premium Quality Water Resistant Nylon Backpack
  with padded Shoulder Straps
• Heavy-Duty Tube Tent Shelter
• Deluxe Knucklemender™ 60 item First-Aid Kit
• 5 Year Shelf-Life Cookie Flavored Food Rations
• 5 Year U.S. Coast Guard Water Rations
• Emergency Space® Blankets
• 36 Hour Light/Heat Candle
• Protective Leather Gloves & Dust Masks
• Quality AM/FM Radio

CONTENTS INCLUDES:

Warmth & Shelter
• 2 - Compact Emergency USA Made Space® Blankets
• 1 - Deluxe Heavy-Duty Tube Tent
• 2 - Emergency Rain/Wind Ponchos

Cooking, Heating, & Light
• 1 - 36 hr. Emergency Candle
• 1 - Industrial “AA” Size Flashlight with Batteries
• 2 - Pair of Hand/Pocket Warmer Heat-Paks
• 1 - 12 hr. Instant Lightstick
• 1 - Box of Waterproof Matches (45 matches)

Water & Hygiene Items
• 24 - Purified Drinking Water Pouches (4.2 ounces each)
• 18 - Wet-Wipe Packets
• 2 - Compact Sanitation/Toilet Toilet Rolls
• 2 - Disposable Sanitation Bags

First-Aid
• 1 - 60 Item Knuckle Mender II™ First Aid Kit w/ Instruction Book

Food Items
• 2 - 3600 Calorie Cookie Tasting Ration Bars
• 1 - Bag of Survival Candy
• 6 - E-mer’gen-C® Energy Drink Packets

Miscellaneous
• 1 - Premium Heavy Duty Nylon Backpack
• 1 - 15-Function Swiss Army Style Pocket Knife
• 1 - Deluxe AM/FM Radio Flashlight w/ Batteries
• 1 - Emergency Survival Whistle
• 1 - 50′ Nylon Cord
• 1 - Pair of Leather Gloves (for digging through or clearing debris)
  or hand warming in cold weather
• 1 - Writing Pad, Pencil, and Ink Pen
• 1 - Deck of Playing Cards (time occupier for kids & adult at shelter or
  if stuck at work or school. Helps time pass much faster).
• 2 - N95 Hospital Grade Dust Masks

This is kit is available at Nitro-pak for $154.99 at the time of this post.

* Emergency Indentification Cards

Here is a good idea that is recommended by the American Safety and Health Institute;
EMERGENCY Preparedness Notification Cards - EMERGENCY Notification Cards for emergency preparedness and peace of mind.