Survival Food - Freeze Dried & MRE

Dehydrated - Freeze-Dried Versus Bulk Food Storage

By Jeremy Crews

Recently, I posted a series of videos on my blog showing the proper method of packing staple food items such as rice, beans, and wheat for long-term storage. I couldn’t possibly stress enough the importance of using such methods as one would be hard-pressed to find a better way to quickly build up a larder of nutritious, life-sustaining food. When dealing in such bulk items as grains, legumes, etc., a hardy supply of foodstuffs will quickly accumulate.

Of course, these methods do have their drawbacks. The first is that it is time- and labor-intensive as you can see from watching the videos. Another downside is that food packed in such ways is typically not going to be something you can just jump in and start eating. Raw wheat, for instance, must be ground into flour using a countertop mill and then baked into bread. A 5 gallon bucket full of wheat will make a lot of bread to feed you and your family, but that level of work going into preparing it may not be what you’re looking for in an emergency. If your personal preparations tend toward gearing up for a long stretch of bad times, then this method is by-far the best for you due to the many months of food you can quickly and economically accumulate.

If, on the other hand, your preps tend toward shorter emergencies (i.e. blizzards and/or ice storms, floods, or even self-quarantine during a bird flu pandemic) you might find it better to simply load up your pantry with canned goods. With few exceptions, virtually any commercially-canned product you buy in the grocery store will last at least 2 years as long as it is not exposed to high temperatures for extended periods and there are no noticeable abnormalities in the packaging (i.e. bulging cans, etc.). In fact, many are still good long past the expiration dates printed on them. Those using this method must be diligent about rotating the stock in the pantry on a regular basis, meaning you must get used to using the oldest items first.

A sort of middle-of-the-road option and the one that I use mostly is to buy commercially-canned dehydrated and freeze-dried foods in #10 cans. The downside to this method is, first off, it’s more expensive. Secondly, you’ll often find these products are not available locally, and so you must pay for shipping as well. Still, when you factor in the *LONG* shelf lives of these foodstuffs, I believe the added cost is worth it.

For those who may not be familiar with food storage as an emergency prep, dehydrated foods are usually base ingredients such as rice or beans with little or no seasoning added. You typically add them to boiling water, which rehydrates and cooks them at the same time. This can be done on the stove, in a crockpot, or even over a camp fire. Things like pancake and muffin mixes are also typically dehydrated. A personal favorite of mine are dehydrated Potato Flakes, which make mashed potatoes when you fix them. Mmm… mashed potatoes. Okay, I think I’ve recovered now. The bottom line is that these more or less always require cooking. These products, unopened, are good for an amazing 15 years on average.

Freeze-dried foods, on the other hand, are typically already a meal that just requires rehydration. Just pour some odd-looking powdery concoction into a pot of hot water and let it sit for 20 minutes or so and return to find that it has magically soacked-up all the water and turned into a steaming pot of yummy Chili Macaroni or Chicken Teriyaki, all pre-cooked and seasoned and ready to eat. Most freeze dried foods are typically advertised as having an almost unbelievable 25 year shelf-life if left unopened.

As always, it is up to you to decide which is your best option for putting up a larder of storage food. Only you can decide what best suits your individual situation. For me and mine, I have concentrated mostly on dehydrated and freeze-dried so far, but I am planning to put away some bulk beans, rice, rolled oats, and pancake mix in 5 gallon buckets with mylar liners and oxygen absorbers in the next few months.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremy_Crews
http://EzineArticles.com/?Dehydrated—Freeze-Dried-Versus-Bulk-Food-Storage&id=2078555

Food preparedness is the logical choice when confronted with real tangible risks.

Why would anyone spend all their resources to prepare for high impact low probability events, while neglecting local significant probability and high impact preparedness?

Live in an seismically active area - be prepared for earthquakes  (Freeze dried food & water)

Live in a coastal area that has hurricane disasters every 50 years - be prepared (Freeze Dried Food & Water)

Live in a coastal area that has hurricane disasters every 20 years - be prepared (MRE)

Worried about flu pandemics every 80 years - be prepared (Freeze dried food  & water)

Live in a flood plain that floods every 20 years - keep several 72 hour kits in your home and automobile (think about moving to higher ground too)

Worried about global economic collapse on a scale that has never happened before - be prepared (Freeze dried food  & water)

Shelf life estimates

Freeze Dried Food - 25 years

MRE - 5 - 7 years

MRE and food bars in a 72 hour emergency kit, in the trunk of a car in a temperate region (Atlanta) - 1 year or less

Buy and store bulk staples, let them rot due to poor oversight and then throw them out a year or two later = unprepared.

 MRE Meals - Stock Up in Case of Emergency
By Catherine Bormant

If your husband was in the service during the 80s, you might be hard pressed to get him to try MRE meals! The MRE survival food of today is not only designed for emergencies but it tastes good as well! The best solution is to order a variety pack and bring it along as camping food. When your family discovers that freeze dried meals do not mean tasteless, they will wonder if maybe they should listen to Mom more often!

The problem seen some time ago was the ration packs would either not have been completely dried at the manufacture or the package drew in moist air. These problems have been taken care of and you are assured of a quality product with MRE foods today. The meals, ready to eat are sealed and guaranteed fresh with a shelf life of decades.

In light of today’s economy and the uncertainty we all face about the future it is a good idea to be prepared. Stock up on emergency food for your family’s sake and that will be a worry off your mind. I can share with you from personal experience that after a natural disaster, the first step to recovery is safety and the second step is food for survival. When your electricity is out for days, a military MRE with its self-heating pouch saves the day!

Everyone has heard horror stories of eating army rations in days gone by. I believe that is why Tabasco sauce became so popular in drowning the MRE meals! Now days, companies such as MREStar and Ameriqual offer freeze dried food that you would be happy to serve your family in times of emergency. It is also great backpacking food on camping trips when it is not feasible to cook and clean up afterwards.

MRE meals contain hearty entrees such as chicken ala king, spaghetti with meat sauce, and beef stew with rice. There are breakfast MREs and even dessert! The MRE manufacturer, Sopakco, provides fully prepared, nutritious, shelf stable meals that are ready to eat when life is interrupted by an emergency. The military meals are your best defense in survival preparation.

All MRE meals are ready to eat, meet daily nutritional requirements, and have a shelf life of up to four years or longer. Put a disaster plan in action by visiting us at http://www.mremeals.org/ to stock up for emergencies! Our site includes information, features, reviews, and we offer the best deals available on survival food!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Catherine_Bormant
http://EzineArticles.com/?MRE-Meals—Stock-Up-in-Case-of-Emergency&id=2856571

Here is a great practical find for survival food on a tight budget.

Small scale disasters happen often affecting many but usually in a small geographic area. A pandemic is a global threat that occurs irregularly and severity is variable. It will take a rare course of events to make the type of global impact you need to take diasater food preparation for.

Depending on where you live there are usually several types of disasters that you need to food prepare for. But what are the chances any of these disasters will occur in your lifetime? Did it happen to your parents or grandparents or previous generations who have lived in your area?

What is the chance of a disaster happening this year? This month? In 10 minutes?

The probability gets smaller and smaller. So why devote continuous and significant effort to be food prepared?

And if you are like most people who get concerned by a disaster threat and react by buying some bulk staples, what happens to the food when the laws of probability play out and nothing happens? The food rots and gets thrown out.

Why not be food prepared for 25-30 years with a one time action? The probability of a disaster occurring in that time frame is much higher than in one or 2 years, so if your goal is to be prepared whenever, you will be.

Buying a survival food reserve bulk package can save cost if you make the right choice.

But most of that savings can be wasted if you do not get the right balance of food groups in the reserve and you have to buy more to balance it.

Nito-pak’s reserves have a good proportion of vegetables, grains, and meat, spread out over complete breakfast lunch and dinner choices. It is important that you maintain routines of your lifestyle in a disaster situation. Having regular meals can bring a lot of calm to tense situations.

Nitro-Pak has one of the best selections of survival food reserve packages for time ranges and purposes (home or office);

		***Ultimate Family Preparedness PakTM
		**Mtn. House Ultimate-Pak Food Reserve Year Supply
		**Platinum Food Reserve 4 People for 3 Mo.
		**Six Month “Gold Food Reserve”
		-Mountain House Year’s Supply - 18 Main Course Entrees
		-Mountain House Year’s Supply Entrees #2 NEW
		-Mountain House Year’s Supply Vegetable-Pak
		-Year’s Supply Food Unit, Platinum Reserve

		Group Emergency Food Reserve #1 (10 Person)
		Group Emergency Food Reserve #2 (20 Person)
		Group Emergency Food Reserve #3 (50 Person)

**”Easy Meal Security-Pak™” Food Reserve

What is it about freeze dried food that makes it a better choice for survival food?

• Freeze dried food is an “always prepared” survival food choice. Threats of disasters come and go and if you bought extra food that is not long storage, chances are you will throw it out or have food you can not eat when a disaster strikes.
• Freeze dried food is a “one time” food preparedness purchase. Until a disaster strikes you do not need to use it. You can wait up to 25 years for a disaster to strike before you will want to throw it away.
• Freeze dried food reserves are prepared meals where you only need to add water to eat. No other preparation is required. This is of great value if the energy source you need to cook is not available or you are too weak to cook.
• Food is closer to what most what most American’s eat. Radical changes in diet can cause added stress and eating problems in a crisis.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the swine flu alert to level 5 out of 6.

Margaret Chan Director-General of the WHO stated;

This change to a higher phase of alert is a signal to governments, to ministries of health and other ministries, to the pharmaceutical industry and the business community that certain actions should now be undertaken with increased urgency, and at an accelerated pace,

Certain actions should be taken now by individuals to be prepared.

The possibility of a serious impact caused by the flu is growing each day and as more information comes to light.

Being food prepared means having a one month to a six month long term food storage, preferably freeze dried food.

Why freeze dried?

Freeze dried food reserves lasts 25 years.

Meals are ready to eat just by adding water.

While the possibility of severe impact from a swine flu outbreak is higher now and growing, it is still not certain nor even likely yet to become severe.

If your long term food storage plan includes bulk bags of staples for an immediate threat, like swine flu, and that threat does not materialize what happens to the bulk staples?

The bulk food will sit in storage for awhile then they are thrown out.

Then one day a disaster does materialize and you are not prepared.

There is still plenty of time to order online and have freeze dried food delivered to your house.

Order lead times are currently one week to 10 days. But the lead time has been getting longer each day this week.

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. 

Utah State University has a classic food storage  advice document on it’s website.

The document titled “Food Storage in the Home” set the standard for food storage advice for years to come. Published by  Charlotte P. Brennand, PhD, and Deloy G. Hendricks, PhD of the Department of Nutrition & Food Sciences, “Food Storage in the Home”  focuses on “Reducing Waste and Maintaining the Quality of Stored Food”

They analyzed over 10,000 food storage systems in Utah in their research.

The concise 20 page pdf file covers what food to store, the storage area, and storage life.  A surprising observation I found in this document regarding how much food to store was;

If you were to sample most Utah family food storage programs in November, about 45 percent would have adequate stores of food for one year. If the same families were resampled in May only 20 percent would still have a years supply on hand. Families which did not have a years supply in May had used food from storage and had no garden or orchard to replenish the supply during the winter months.

They go on to recommend you have a long term food storage that has a peak 18 months supply if you are planning to always have a years supply. This makes sense if you are utilizing a garden approach to supplement your food supply.

What was even more shocking though was this finding on page six;

Families that were resampled and still had a years supply in May did so because they never used food from their storage system. We have analyzed over 10,000 food storage systems in Utah and found that many people are under the illusion that food lasts forever. Their food storage systems are designed so that a years supply is purchased and stored until needed. Consequently they have some stored food that is 10, 20, and 25 years old. In view of what is known about shelf-life, these systems are quite wasteful and inefficient.

Under this illusion what people thought they had, a years supply, disappeared when they went to use it.  Not a comforting thought. They had solved the problem by not drawing on their reserve but in the end they had no reserve, the food was inedible.

This would not be the case with freeze dried food however. Having freeze dried food that is 10, 20, and 25 years old in a food storage area means the food is still good and delicious to eat.

How many people who start something are able to follow thru and stick to the plan for months or years to come?