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 US Department of Agriculture publishes a report monthly titled “Cost of Food at Home at Four Levels”.

This report shows the monthly food cost for individuals of various ages and for a family of four.  The budgets are calculated based on the nutritional requirements for dietary intake reference guidelines. In the USDA’s reference document “The Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans, 2007″ the “food baskets” chosen are all representative of the requirements except;

To meet the recommendations for vitamin E, potassium, and sodium would have resulted in market baskets that are very different from typical consumption (in the case of vitamin E and potassium) or would require changes in food-manufacturing practices (in the case of sodium).

What they are saying is that what Americans typically eat and what is available from producers at the supermarket is too far off to select a basket that meets the Vitamin E, potassium, and sodium requirements.  These exceptions, while interesting to note, tell us that all the other dietary requirements have been met in these food baskets.

The “thrifty” food plan on the other hand;

Having more vegetables, fruits, and milk products and less other foods
in the TFP market basket for the family of four, compared with their reported consumption,
is not surprising; because, the TFP represents a nutritious diet.

The monthly home food “moderate plan” budget for a family of four, with older children, in January 2009 was $973.80.

The “liberal plan” January home food monthly budget was $1182.50.

For 3 months the home food budget  comes to $2921.40 and $3547.50 for moderate and liberal plans respectively.

Compare this to the 3 month Platinum reserve from Nitro-pak that cost $3375.  The platinum reserve supports four adults at 2000 calories per day.

Some people erroneously think freeze dried food is very expensive.  But when you look at the facts the cost of a freeze dried food reserve is no more expensive than the average food budget.

Even more important, most freeze dried food reserves offered are prepared meals so no effort to cook them is required. Adding hot water is all it takes to have a hot meal in minutes. Even if you don’t have hot water you can still eat the food cold.

I have previously shown the cost of bulk staples is deceptive once you factor in the cost of cooking and preparing meals. You need effort, equipment, more time, and more fuel.  Any of these can be a precious commodity in a disaster.  How valuable will your time be in a crisis? Freeing up time to work on other challenges could make a huge difference in your survival.

Finally a bulk staples only food plan always has the risk you will get caught with low inventory, your re-order point,  just at the time a shortage of supply occurs. With  freeze dried food the reserve is not touched, never depleted. Only when your normal food supply is disrupted do you draw on it.

Having a diverse food storage plan is wise. Bulk staples, MRE, freeze dried food all have their different benefits. But do not make a poor decision on the balance of these choices based on a wrong perception of cost. Value is more important than cost, looking at facts for the total cost of an option is vital to making the correct decision on your long term food storage plan.

One challenge for having an effective food reserve plan is “up front” cost.

Although freeze dried food in a bulk food reserve package will cost the same per meal as the average cost of a home cooked meal, buying a 3 month or 6 month food reserve is a large “up front” investment.

However there are ways to purchase gradually over time.

Mountain house freeze dried food can be purchased in boxes of six #10 cans.

Mountain House Variety Pak

These boxes contain up to 30 meals and some online suppliers offer free shipping for a single box.

The cost per meal compared to buying a 3 month or 6 month food reserve at one time will rise 25% to 40%.   So the best economical choice is still to buy a large reserve at one time.

However if you want a long term food reserve you can build up gradually, Mountain House cases are an option.

You could lower your daily food cost by buying several months supply of bulk rice and grains. As long as you use them regularly and don’t let them go to waste. However it is impossible to know just when you are going to need a food reserve, will it be 5 weeks or 5 months or 5 years? So if you have a food reserve that lasts 25 years you have a better investment as it will be ready when you need it.

The narrative is that “there are troubles ahead, but ‘just right’ troubles, the kind survivalists have the means to confront … imagined troubles always match the means at hand — or what is for sale to solve the problem.

Richard Mitchell Jr., professor emeritus at Oregon State University and author of “Dancing at Armageddon: Survivalism and Chaos in Modern Times.”

Two people concerned about risks in life and active in preparedness efforts for their families are Bob and Gary.

Bob has created a food storage room. It has racks stocked with canned food, shelves with carefully stored bulk grains, sugar, etc he and his family needs for survival. He has planned and worked this out over a long time and has built up a 6 month supply of food.  He has 30 and 55 gallon drums of water that store enough to supply drinking and hygiene water 6 months as well.  Bob carefully manages his inventory and makes sure the family eats the food regularly so that nothing expires and goes to waste.

Gary, who is also very concerned about preparedness and risks, did some research. Gary thought through what were the best and appropriate choices for his family. Gary decided to buy 6 months worth of freeze dried food which amounted to two pallets he stored in his house. He decided not to buy drums for water but instead purchased and stored five 100 gallon pillow tanks and a 5 gallon collapsible container. Gary also had a water purification filter and a rainwater collector. He had an attachment for downspout collection of water.

A crisis occurred (what kind does not matter if you are prepared for anything) that caused both Bob and Gary to be thankful they had prepared. Bob continued using food from his storage. Gary started to use his food reserve when food supply became intermittent. Both were able to help family, friends, and neighbors who were not prepared at the times when they were in dire need.

Then power from utilities started to become intermittent and fuel was scarce. Bob and Gary both had solar ovens they used to cook and heat small amounts water and store in insulated containers. However Bob and his family were challenged because at night and cloudy days the hot water they stored could not cook the food in their reserve. They began to grow worried. Gary and his family only really needed the hot water to make their freeze dried food hot, a real morale booster.

Due to the stress of shortages, social order was starting to destabilize. As the risk of staying where they were grew higher both Bob and Gary thought about their options. Fortunately both had remote cottages several hours drive away where they had long term relationships with other cottagers that would be a safer place to be.

Unfortunately as is the case in a prolonged crisis, events become unpredictable. One day it became urgent to leave their locations for their cottages immediately. Within an hour the highway would be jammed with drivers in a state of desperation, highly stressed out and emotionally charged.

Bob needed to pack as much food and water in the family van in next 30 minutes. Bob and his wife had packed clothes and essentials for the kids in case they had to leave quickly, so that was in the van in minutes. However Bob’s food reserve of canned food was large, heavy, bulky. Worse water weighs 8.3 lbs per gallon so Bob’s filled 55 gallon drums weighed 458 lbs each. Bob had no idea what to do in this short time. He decided to drain one of his tanks but there was no easy way to do this and avoid electrocution. So he shut the power off and dumped the water out on the floor ruining some grain, after removing enough with a hand pump to tip the tank over. This still took 40 minutes and when he put the empty drum in his van it took up too much room. All he could do was take his 5 gallon collapsible tank and fill it. Meanwhile Bob’s wife was loading cans of food in the in the van but was unable to choose a balance of food they needed. She hurt her back trying to lift bulk bags of wheat and was now writhing in pain. In the end they were only able to get effectively 3 weeks worth of food in the van but drove off because they had no other choice, leaving 4 months worth of food behind. Bob also did have a weeks worth of MRE which hopefully will buy them enough time to figure out how to survive at their cottage.

When Gary realized he only had 30 minutes he knew exactly what he and his family had to do. They had also packed an emergency clothes and supplies bag to leave quickly. Since the boxes of freeze dried food weighed little, with 98% of the water in the food removed, Gary was able to cart out his remaining 5 months supply on a dolly in 15 minutes. There was just enough room in the Van for this much food. More importantly his wife had already brought out an empty 100 gallon pillow tank and put it on the floor of the van (2 seats removed) and filled it. Gary had put the food, solar oven, rain water equipment, empty pillow tanks, and emergency supplies on top of the filled pillow tank and next to it.

25 minutes later Gary and his family were in the Van on the road to their cottage.

Flexibility and mobility are important to preparedness.

News broke a few days ago that Panasonic had advised employees overseas to arrange for their families to return home by September 2009 as part of influenza pandemic planning.

See the story at CIDRAP.

The WHO (World Heath Organization) was perplexed at the action by Panasonic.

A Panasonic spokesman quickly issued a statement that Panasonic had no “proprietary” information on an elevated risk of an influenza pandemic.

He also denied it was related to cost cutting.

In my humble opinion – this “pandemic planning” is related to costs as well as concerns over social unrest in China and other countries as the threat of a global economic depression looms.

However it is always best to be proactively prepared so that when any news comes you don’t need worry and react hastily and make poor decisions on how you are prepared.

But if you are not prepared now with the small but very significant risk of an economic depression then it is likely you will not be prepared for a sudden disaster or pandemic. Now is the time to be prepared for anything as there will be no time and little to get prepared later.

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

Family food reserves for disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, pandemics, and ice storms have recently been sought after as an investment against an economic depression.

The threat of prolonged economic hardship is becoming more real each week. Last week more than 100,000 jobs were lost in the US.

The fact that these troubles are being driven by a lack of stability in the financial system has created a great concern on how we should invest our resources for a more and more likely ‘rainy day’.

Freeze dried food reserves are getting a lot of attention as an attractive investment for economic depression survival for some important reasons;

• You do not need to change your cooking and eating habits. You keep the food reserve that stores for up to 25 years in reserve.  You do not need to eat from the reserve until you need it.

• You draw from your reserve as you need it. If there is no food shortage or budget crisis, you do not draw from your food reserve. You only need to stock up one time with a 3 month or a one year food reserve and then you use that reserve only when it is needed.

• Meals versus raw ingredients. Freeze dried food in Mountain House #10 cans consists of cooked entrees and side dishes that you only need to add water (hot or cold) to eat.  In tough times you want to conserve as much of your time and energy as possible to support your family.

• No Waste. People who try buying bulk food often are not prepared to adjust to the new cooking style and do not store the food properly. The end result is what appeared to cost you less ends up costing you a lot more when you throw a lot of the bulk food away.

• Freeze dried food costs about the same in a reserve as most people spend normally on groceries for the same number of meals. The upfront cost of buying a 3 month or one year food reserve is money well spent when you realize that you will have the flexibility to use your investment when you need it. The fact that freeze dried food has a long storage life and is very easy to consume means little waste.

Freeze dried food reserve sales have skyrocketed in the last 4 months as the economic crisis has evolved and it’s impact is becoming clearer. Many see the benefits of freeze dried food and understand the value.

Freeze dried food reserves represent a long term ‘bank’ of food that actually increases the food supply for all. Buying tons of bulk food and then throwing a lot of spoiled food away can be considered a wasteful hoarding of food on the other hand.

While we can all hope and work hard for things to get better, it is best to be prepared for the worst.

Most people find it overwhelming to take action to have a long term food storage to be prepared for disasters and economic uncertainty.

They read lots of information online that tells them they have to radically change their lifestyle to support food storage. The people who write these food storage advice articles are often already in a lifestyle suited to what they preach.

There is nothing wrong with their advice, it simply doesn’t apply to the vast majority of us urban dwelling working parents with kids who have tons of activities and school projects to do every week.

How to Get Started With Your Food Storage is one of those interview articles where the person has a lot of home time to bake bread, use milk powder, and spend tons of time cooking from scratch. This is great if you are in a lifestyle that supports it but for most of us that is not the case.

Answering the question about how often the food storage is used the person replies;

Now it’s natural. But I would say every meal. I make my own bread so at lunch we have that, at breakfast if we have cereal or something then it has the powdered milk. And then dinner would have usually milk or onions or something. I use it all the time.

Further they are asked on advice to those getting started in food storage since it is “a hard step” ;

So what I would say is just pick one thing that you’re going to start with. And one of the things I think is easiest to start with is powdered milk

Okay, so I want to be prepared and I start with powered milk. How many months or years go by before we are ready? How long before most of us just give up?

On the other hand you can order a freeze dried food storage family unit and be ready in a week when it arrives.

You will have 3 months worth of ready to eat meals for your family that costs about the same as the average American family pays now for the same meals in groceries. The food will store for 25 years so if you don’t need it this year or next, it will still be there for you whenever you need it.

Those who are supporting their families with a traditional food storage lifestyle are inspirations to us all.

Those who want to be prepared next week and buy a freeze dried food storage have also done a great thing for their family and friends.

The ReadyStore is have a 20% to 30% off sale on their entire selection of emergency supplies.

The sale ends Dec 9th at The ReadyStore.

.

I found this great food storage calculator at;

LDS Food Storage Calculator

As I mentioned previously LDS has alot of knowledge on preparedness and many survival food stores main customers are members of LDS who are looking for a year supply of food.

Fortunately the calculator allows you to input decimals for number of people. If you want to know how much for for one person for 3 months, just enter 0.25 into the number of people box and select calculate.

Now as readers of my blog know that for disaster preparedness for most of us, freeze dried food is the better choice.

Most people do not have the time or inclination to start storing staples listed on the site and spending 4-5 hours a day cooking with them regularly while you use up and replenish your storage. Eating one year old food all the time does not appeal to me nor is it necessary. However some may have a lifestyle that supports using stored staples and that is great for them.

Some however may not be able to afford the amount of freeze dried food and MRE they desire to be prepared. There is also some value in diversifying your food storage. So you may want to consider some stored staples that you can reasonable consume and replenish without it going bad and throwing it out.

So the LDS food calculator is a good tool for your calculations. Please note however that you should be accustomed to the food diet that the staples will provide as many survival experts agree a significant change in diet can cause severe health problems under stress in a disaster or desperate time.

I did a calculation on one year for a family of 4 with children over 7 years. The results were ;

Total Grains     1200 lbs

Total Fats            52 lbs

Total Legumes    240 lbs

Total Sugars       240 lbs

Total Dairy         300 lbs

As you can see foods with the water in them are quite heavy. With freeze dried food 98% of the water is removed and can either be stored separately or gathered from rainwater over a year, there is much more flexibility and portability options. The calculation on the website indicated only 56 gallons which way off, you will need a ton of water to prepare and cook these food staples.

Freeze dried food as a survival food is a better choice for most.