One way to gauge how significant and trustworthy these sites are and their relative online presence, is checking to see how popular they are. I am doing this for online stores first since that is mostly what visitors to this site are looking for. Compete.com provides a website analytics tool that helps gauge how much monthly traffic a site gets. This is a good measure of popularity.

Below is a graph of the Top 5 or what I call “first tier” survival food distributors. The monthly site visitors are listed in thousands (K).

The “first tier” top 5 Survival Food sites as of May 2008;

1. Emergency Essentials (beprepared.com)- Sells both commercial MRE & Freeze Dried, and dehydrated food mostly “À la carte”. Some mixed food reserves with a mix of long life freeze dried food and bulk foods.
2. Nitro-pak - Sells both commercial MRE & Freeze Dried Food, variety of bulk 3 month and one year freeze dried food reserve units,  wide variety of preparedness products (Note: We have an affiliate partner relationship with Nitro-pak).
3. Long Life Food Depot - Sells mainly commercial MRE
4. The Ready Store - Sells both commercial MRE & Freeze Dried Food, variety of bulk 3 month and one year freeze dried food reserve units.
5. The Epicenter -Sells both commercial MRE & Freeze Dried Food in pouches (recently stopped selling most #10 cans due to availability), camping gear.

The “second tier” top 5 Survival Food sites as of May 2008;

1. MRE Depot - Sells non-military surplus MRE, canned staples, freeze dried staples.
   
2. Survival Acres - Sells Freeze dried food and dehydrated food.
3. MRE Foods - Sells commercial MRE. Lowest delivered price for an MRE case I have found online.
4. Are You Prepared - Sells commercial MRE and freeze dried food.
5. Meyers Custom Supply - Sells commercial MRE, also has an AlpineAire page but no products on it at the time of this post

There are other sites, some I listed below that had significant monthly traffic, but their product focus was not centered MRE and freeze dried food, but more on either other survival products or survival information in general.

Camping Survival - Wide variety of survival & camping gear, some MRE.

Captain Dave’s Survival Center - Wide variety of survival gear, some MRE

The Survival Center - preparedness books, food storage advice, canned food and also some MRE & freeze dried food.

AAOOB Storable Foods - specialize in grain mills, other bulk food storage equipment, but some MRE and freeze dried.

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The freeze drying process removes 98% of the water from food, stopping bacterial growth as well as killing insects and their eggs.

Beyond freeze drying, to preserve food and increase shelf life oxygen is the main enemy. If the food is stored in a way that it is not exposed to oxygen, the shelf life can reach 25 to 30 years. Shelf life here refers to the food maintaining it’s properties of nutritional value, taste, and appearance. It may still be safe to eat beyond this time but the aforementioned properties are degraded.

Oxygen Absorbers

Some freeze dried food producers use oxygen absorbers to extend shelf life.

Oxygen absorbers are materials that chemically react with oxygen in the environment they are in, combining with the oxygen and thus removing it from that environment. The most commonly used material for absorbers is iron in the forms of iron powder or iron carbonate. Both combine with oxygen very effectively.

Once oxygen absorbers are exposed to oxygen they will continue to react with it until the material is fully “oxidized” meaning it can not absorb any more oxygen. For this reason they need to be very carefully sealed and stored so that they are not consumed before their intended use.

The application in which oxygen absorbers are used for freeze dried food storage is to place them in the can of food before it is vacuum sealed.

The idea is that any oxygen that leaks into the sealed container over years of storage will be absorbed by it, rather than the oxygen reacting with the freeze dried food and degrading it.

There are two types of oxygen absorbers commonly used. One type, Multisorb Technologies’ FreshPax Type-B requires some moisture from the environment it is in to be present to work and is used for moist foods like bread and processed meats. Type-D absorbers contain there own moisture source and are thus suited to dry foods like freeze dried food.

You may remember the old adage Aristotle proclaimed in 350 BC, “nature abhors a vacuum”. So any vacuum packed container will over time be invaded, if ever so slightly, by the surrounding air and with it the 21% of air that is oxygen.

So while the oxygen absorber will extend the shelf life by absorbing the oxygen in the air that is present initially during packing as well as the air that leaks in over time, eventually the absorber will be “maxed out”, that is it will be fully oxidized and can not absorb any more oxygen.

I have seen the guarantees for shelf life for this type packed freeze dried food at 10-15 years. This period may be a reflection of the limit of the process and process controls that the producer of the food uses, as well as that of the oxygen absorber.

Nitrogen Packing

Nitrogen packing or “nitro-pak” on the other hand takes a different approach to dealing with oxygen “enemy”.

Rather than relying on the properties of the container to fight the invading air trying to get in, the container is flushed with nitrogen or packed in a nitrogen environment. As a result the sealed container has the same or slightly higher pressure but with nitrogen and not air. This means that air is not fighting to get in. There is no abhorrence so to speak.

Thus the period that the food remains unexposed to significant concentrations of oxygen is much longer and thus the possible shelf life is longer.

What is the longest shelf life for nitrogen packed freeze dried food?

Mountain House, the commercial brand of Oregon Freeze Dry which has been around for over 40 years, states on their web site regarding their #10 cans of freeze dried food;

“Our foods will have the longest shelf life available…up to 30 years!”

It may be the result of superior process controls, not only the nitrogen packing process, that makes them feel comfortable making this statement.

There is information online on how you can nitro-pak foods yourself with some equipment but I would be leery of assuming your process control would be on the same par and have the same shelf life.

In any case “nitro-pak” freeze dried food has the longest shelf life for any type of commercially available stored food I have seen.

References on oxygen absorbers, nitrogen packing, and freeze dried food;

Wikipedia - Oxygen Absorber

Walton Feed - A Short Lesson on Oxygen Absorbers

Walton Feed - Storing Your Food Using Compressed Gas Such as Argon or Nitrogen

Nitro-Pak - Freeze Dried Food Reserves

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**PRICES GOING UP August 1, 2008: Mountain House has announced that prices will be going up on August 1, 2008. In order for our customers to “lock-in” todays lower food prices, we will honor the current lower prices on all orders received before this date. ORDER NOW!

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I think that we’ve got to stockpile food reserves at a global level more effectively than we have in the past. Those stockpiles have shrunk considerably. And finally, we’re going to have to deal with increasing energy costs, which are having an impact on overall food production and cost. So this is going to be long challenge, and is something that an Obama administration is going to monitor closely and take aggressive action.

(See full transcript from Lynn Sweet Chicago Sun Times -Obama June 10, 2008 availability. Transcript)

His reference to “more effectively” stockpiling food essentially means having food produced and stored regionally to avoid excessive freight costs moving food in emergency situations from one geography to another.

Having food stockpiles in the countries most likely to have a crisis could also have the added benefit of stabilizing production and pricing, but don’t tell that to any “free market economics” zealots still clinging to their “jaded by reality” philosophy.

The cost of freight being excessive is especially true when food is air lifted half way across the globe from the US to wherever it is needed, now even more so with high fuel costs.

One way to offset the cost of airfreight is to store freeze dried food as a reserve for domestic emergency purposes for it’s long shelf properties. When a crisis occurs elsewhere in the world requiring food to be made available immediately, it will be much more economical to ship the light “water removed” freeze dried food since it is has 98% of the water, and thus the weight removed.

For air freight, weight is a much more significant factor in cost than it is for land or sea freight which is not likely to be used if the situation is urgent.

Water to hydrate the freeze dried food can be brought in locally at lower freight costs than the cost of food with water in it being shipped from a regional facility.

The superior shelf life of freeze dried food will also limit the loss and waste that occurs from the time food is pulled from storage through it’s distribution, till the time it is actually consumed by those who need it.

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But is dehydrated food really a good choice for survival food?

Let’s consider 3 factors; preparation, taste, and shelf life.

Dehydrated food requires a lot preparation to be consumed. In order to use dehydrated food it needs to be hydrated so you need to soak it. You still need to prepare, mix and cook it. To cook you will need cooking equipment and fuel. You will have to clean up after the cooking.

Compare this to freeze dried food.

For a hot meal using freeze dried food you need heated water, just add it and wait a few minutes. If you have to, you can use unheated water but still no cooking is required. This is huge convenience, not to be undervalued for disaster preparedness. There likely will be times in a disaster when you do not have time and energy to cook using dehydrated foods.

You may like the taste of dehydrated foods you have consumed as a snack or specialty food. However if you are eating for weeks or months meals made from dehydrated food as a base, you may have difficulty consuming healthy amounts of food.

You should never underestimate the importance of being able to enjoy the food you are eating, there are examples in history of people starving even though there was edible food available.

It is of great benefit to lower stress wherever possible in a disaster situation, lower stress results in people dealing more effectively with problems in any situation. Having good tasting hot meals regularly tends to lower stress. Freeze dried food retains the original taste and freshness when re-hydrated to a high degree.

Finally there is the shelf-life to consider. The likelihood of a experiencing a disaster is greater over a longer period. The longer the shelf-life of your survival food, the less the often you will be replacing it. Even worse, would be discovering you have rancid food when you need it most. Dehydrated food shelf life is usually rated 8-10 years. Freeze dried food can keep it’s flavor, appearance and nutritional value for 25 years.

While you may save a little with dehydrated food in the up front cost, the long run costs will be much higher than if you choose freeze dried food. The added benefits of taste and less time to prepare to eat make freeze dried food a much better choice than dehydrated food.

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orders with #10 canned foods or units are taking 2 to 4 weeks to ship.

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IMPORTANT SHIPPING NOTE: Do to current market conditions, huge customer demand, worldwide food shortages and tight supplier allocations (most of our competitors have been totally cut off by the factory), orders will ship in approximately 3 to 4 Weeks from receipt and will be shipped in the order we receive them. We are receiving limited stock weekly. Don’t delay ordering. The longer you wait, the longer the line is getting. Sorry. Just being up front & honest.
Your charge card WILL NOT be charged until 3-5 days prior to shipping.
Thanks you for your patience!

This does not contain any new information other than “competitors being cut off” whatever that means, and I am checking what the status at other online retailers.

Mountain House website is still saying they are not directly selling #10 cans of freeze dried food, the statement there says;

We regret to inform you Oregon Freeze Dry cannot satisfy all Mountain House #10 can orders and we have removed #10 cans from our website temporarily. The reason for this is sales of #10 cans have continued to increase. OFD is allocating as much production capacity as possible to this market segment…..We expect this situation to be necessary for several months although this isn’t a guarantee. We will update this information as soon as we know more. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience. We sincerely hope you will continue to be Mountain House customers in the future.

I think the panic buying we have been seeing by survivalist driven consumers, caused by worry about the manifestation of “peak oil theory”, will ease off if the price of oil goes down $15 to $20 or so soon. However it will be some time before the availability of freeze dried food will improve and prices will go down. If the price of oil goes up much more, then the demand for freeze dried food will likely spike exponentially higher unfortunately.

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Survival Food Options

Prepared with Emergency Food You Will Want to Eat.

Can you rely on adequate government support within 72 hours or even a week of a major disaster?

I think everyone agrees now the answer is definitely not.

Yet only 7% of us have taken action ourselves to be prepared, according to the American Red Cross. Why?

Most of us want to be prepared but what we really need are some solutions that are easy to obtain and don’t require any effort to maintain. Solutions that don’t need to be thrown out and replaced often.

If you are considering food preparedness and want to make sure your choice of food is something much more than barely edible, that also has a low cost per meal, I have sorted through the pros and cons of various survival food options for you here.

Two options that you may not be as familiar with, MRE and Freeze Dried Food, are often overlooked but you would be severely limiting your choices if you did not consider them. They are very long storage life emergency food solutions that require little or no preparation.

Bulk Freeze Dried Food Examples
Various Freeze Dried Food Reserves

MRE Case & Pallet Examples
Various Bulk MRE (meals ready to eat)

Please take just a few minutes to read below about the advantages and disadvantages of survival food options to make a wiser more well informed choice.

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Survival Food Options Advantages and Disadvantages

What are the options for food emergency preparedness?

The conventional wisdom offered by our governments is to go to your local supermarket or big box store and buy canned food and dry grains and store them. There are limitations to this survival food strategy that are highlighted below.

Two other options are MRE or ‘meals ready to eat’ and Freeze Dried Food. They have additional superior survival food benefits that will make you and your family much better prepared for any situation that requires a survival food supply from 72 hours to 6 months.

Survival Food Option 1 - Buy Canned Food and Dry Grains

Buy the canned foods, grains, and bottled water as many government agencies recommend. Store in your house or apartment.

Advantages

• Can be done in 2 hours or less

Disadvantages

• Most will forget or not store it properly so it will be useless when it is needed. Did you do this years ago? Go look at this food now and check the expiry dates on canned goods and check grains for mold infestations, rodent invasions, etc.
• Canned foods are bulky and heavy, space is often limited people will not be able to store much
• Grains need a lot of water to cook to eat and water may be unavailable or scarce in a disaster.
• You will need to spend a lot of time preparing food
• Canned foods destroy appetites and morale quickly. Even unexpected allergic type reactions can occur if the types of food staples in a diet are drastically changed.

Survival Food Option 2 - Buy Canned Food and Dry Grains on an “inventory cycle” plan

Same strategy as the first option, except you actively manage storing and ‘cycle’ inventory of goods. As you buy new food you use up the old canned food so that the food store is less than the expiry date of the canned food.

Advantages

• Food will not be bad when you need it

Disadvantages

• Most people do not have the time, space, or inclination to do this
• Grains need a lot of water to cook to eat and water may be unavailable or scarce.
• You will need to spend a lot of time preparing food
• Canned foods will destroy appetites and morale quickly

Survival Food Option 3 - Buy MRE’s (military style Meals Ready to Eat)

See Various MRE(meals ready to eat)Reserves

Advantages

• Easy to store and lasts upto 5-7 years in a cool dry place.
• Easiest and fastest preparation time possible and can be heated fast with “MRE heaters”
• Can be ordered online in minutes, delivered to your house. You will only have to spend less than 30 minutes storing it.

Disadvantages

• Relatively expensive per meal ($6-$7) and for extended reserve of 6 weeks, 3 months, or a year a lot space required to store.
• Lasts only 5-7 years so you will need to buy a replacement reserve relatively soon. Hopefully you do not live in a place where there is a disaster that often.
• Tastes like canned food which will destroy appetites and morale quickly

Survival Food Option 4 - Buy Freeze Dried Food

See Various Freeze Dried Food Reserves

Advantages

• Easy to store and can last up to 30 years.
• Fast simple preparation just add water. But only water that is needed to hydrate the food, much less than cooking.
• Once hydrated, freeze dried food taste is very close to original food taste.
• Light weight easy to store large qty (Mountain house #10 cans) of food for reserves of 6 weeks, 3 months, or a year. A 6 week food reserve can fit under a bed!
• Can be ordered online in minutes, delivered to your house. You will only have to spend less than 30 minutes storing it.
• Good economical choice - cost can be less than $3.35 per meal.

As you can see there are a lot of benefits to Freeze Dried Food over the other options making it the superior choice as a bulk survival food.

Bulk Emergency Food - Freeze Dried Food and MRE Packages

Freeze Dried Food
45 day - 6 weeks Freeze Dried Food
Family One year Food Reserves
Group Food Reserve 50 people X 7 days or 10 people X 35 days
MRE
Bulk MRE (meals ready to eat)

For additional information on survival food planning see Planning Survival Food - Short and Long Term

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Freeze Dried Food Reserve Packages

Mountain House 4 person 3 month “dinner Entree-pak”

True food preparedness means;

1. A food reserve with variety that tastes good so people can eat and be satisfied
2. Food that is simple and easy to prepare even in a disaster
3. Food that is easy to store and transport

The new Mountain House 4 person 3 month “dinner Entree-pak” meets all of these conditions and at low price per meal.

Priced at $985 this package offers an affordable peace of mind for preparedness for your family that easy to use.

So you don’t need to be a dedicated trained survival enthusiast to be prepared. You just need to make the right prepardedness choice.

Platinum Food Reserve
Food supports 4 People for 3 Months or one person for a year.

This bulk freeze dried food reserve is (at the time of this post) for $3150 , with free shipping and a 120-day ‘no-risk’ guarantee.

“…will provide over 2000 calories per day for one person for one complete year, or a family of 4 for 3 months! It comes with a total of 168 #10 cans (large restaurant size cans) that comes packed in 28 cases for easy storage.”

Nitro-Pak is where you can get;

• Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food

• 72-hour Survival Kits

• Free Shipping on orders over $100

• 120-Day ‘No-Risk’ Guarantee

KT

Mountain House #10 Cans Versus Pouches

The image on the left shows boxes of Mountain House #10 cans. The image on the right shows Mountain House pouches.

Pouches are popular with hikers, rock climbers and back-packers. Mountain house also sells them in cases as a food reserve.

They are a meal in pouch, just add water.

A Mountain House pouch can be used as a survival food reserve and are specifically packaged as such in the “just in case unit” 7 day food supply box pictured above.

This is comparable to MRE with the distinction they taste better, are easier to digest but require more preparation since you need to add water.

When you compare a pouch to a #10 can the main difference is that pouches are an individual meal. Mountain house #10 cans are a bulk, 8-10 serving food reserve unit.

More important however, pouches will store for up to 7 years at 75° F (24° C), while #10 cans will last 25 years under the same conditions.

While it is more convenient to have the pouches and they are a good alternative to MRE if you can’t stand the taste or digest MREs, #10 cans are a much longer lasting and better investment for disaster preparedness.

The exception are those people who find the contents of the pouches comparable enough to fresh food, and will consume pouches periodically for regular meals and continuously re-stock them as a food reserve for disasters. Then the 7 year shelf life is not an issue.

Finally a food reserve of the same duration in #10 cans will store in a smaller space than the pouches due to the cans being a bulk (less packaging) food supply.

In summary;

Mountain House Pouch

• More convenient package as a meal
• taste better than MRE
• Store for up to 7 years

Mountain House #10 Can

• bulk, 8-10 one cup servings of one item
• store for up top 25 years
• store more efficiently than pouches

Buy Mountain House Just In Case Unit

Buy Mountain House #10 can Food Reserve

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MRE Information

MRE or “Meals Ready to eat” are military style food rations.

Some reasons why they are a popular choice for survival food;

• MRE’s paks are a complete meal with main course, side dish, crackers with spread, dessert, and a powdered drink mix.
• MRE packs last 4-10 years depending on storage temperature, longer than most canned food.
• They are pre-cooked and in a pouch “ready to eat”, nothing needs to be added
• Usually you buy MRE with flameless heaters so you can eat your meal hot (cold is ok too)

USAGE

You can best use MRE for emergency situations where you “are on the go” . Also if you do not want to waste time cooking or do not want the hassle of bring cooking equipment with you. MRE’s are the most convenient survival food choice.

MRE cost is about $6 per meal plus shipping for a case of 12. You can get discounts if you buy larger quantities.

For a food reserve for periods longer than a week however, a “freeze dried food” reserve is better in terms of space and cost per meal. You will need water for freeze dried food which, although hydrates quickly, is nevertheless is not as “ready to eat”

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Survival Food - Short & Long Term Planning

No one preparedness strategy will support all your food needs in a disaster.

While there are huge advantages freeze dried food gives as the survival food of choice, it is not the best in all situations. It is good planning to have a short term strategy and a long term strategy to be best prepared.

Below is a look at food preparedness strategies, starting with the long term.

Long Term Survival Food Strategy

Long term here refers to having a food supply that will last from 2 weeks to 3 months or more. Freeze dried food is best for these situations as it can be easily prepared but still have good taste close to the original food. It is important to not add stress to an already stressful situation with a poor tasting food supply.

Freeze dried food avoids this problem as your family can continue eating a healthy diet that has good taste as close to fresh as possible among all the other food options.

You may still want to prepare a herb or sprout garden kit to add a live food source to your reserve. Astronauts who have eaten freeze dried foods for extended periods have commented on how they relished live fresh food upon their return.

It will be important after a disaster to have as much time as possible available each day for other important activities. You can maximize your available time by not spending a lot of it preparing and cooking food.

Mountain House freeze dried food in #10 cans (which can store up to 25 years) have 8 to 10 servings each and will last up to 2 weeks once opened. #10 cans are an ideal strategy for the long term.

You will need a large enough space to store the light weight #10 cans of freeze dried food and also water containers. A freeze dried food supply for 3 months for a family of four can store in a space 3′ by 3′, by 4′ high. You will easily be able to transport this if need be in a van or pickup truck from a storage location to a place you will reside during a disaster. But if you want to be able to be mobile with this type of food supply you will need some type of RV.

Daily calorie intake for different freeze dried food packages varies. Planning 1500 calories a day would be the bare minimum for an adult, even for someone less active. 2100 to 2400 calories is recommended. If you want to plan for support of very active adults you may want to add extra meals to bring the daily total to 2900 calories per day. Small children 5 -9 years old will require about 700 - 800 calories per day.

A water supply of 3 months for a family of four would require is about 440 gallons or eight 55 gallon drums. This will provide a gallon of water each per day for 110 days. You can get food grade storage drums that will safely store water for 5 years. You may have plans for alternative supply of water in a long term situation and not require all eight of the drums.

Freeze Dried Food Reserves

55 gallon water container, 4 per package

Short Term Survival Food Strategy

For initial disaster preparedness food supply, MRE (meals ready to eat) are a better choice. They do not require water to hydrate, they are truly ready. They can be heated in 10 minutes with “flameless ration heaters” a pouch that will heat up if you add a little water to it.

MRE’s are great if you want to spend as little time preparing and eating food as possible. This will especially be the case shortly after a disaster where you may need to travel or expend a lot of effort to recover get set up and be prepared for the long term.

One draw back of MREs is that many people are critical of the taste and some report difficulty digesting the food. You should try MRE with your family to make sure no one has a strong dislike for it. It will also be helpful for them to know what to expect in terms of food before a disaster.

The other drawback for MRE is that it is twice as expensive as freeze dried food per meal.

For these reasons I recommend planning MRE supply for a maximum of 3 weeks. After at most 3 weeks you should be ready to use your long term freeze dried food supply for your food needs. Since MRE lasts only 5-7 years you may want to safely plan to re-stock it ever 4 years when there is an election or when there is an Olympics to help you remember. You want to make sure at this time that the MRE agrees with everyone.

Keeping bottled water cases stocked up will help be prepared for the short term, however for longer than 2 weeks you really need to consider storage drums or some other alternative source to be prepared.

Finally it would be a good idea to keep a 72 hour kit with food bars or MRE in your car(s) so that you and your family will have supplies to support getting back together if you are separated when disaster strikes.

MRE (meals ready to eat) Food Reserves

72 hour survival kit

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MRE are also easier for traveling since you do not need to carry that extra water or heating equipment to prepare them. The Flameless Ration Heaters that most MREs come with, can heat them in 10 minutes so you can feel some comfort in a stressful situation with a hot meal.

Below is an great article by Rayven Perkins where she talks about her first hand experience with MRE’s in the aftermath of 3 hurricanes starting with Hurricane Charley.

Two commercial MRE meals per day provide enough calories for an adult for one day at about 2400 calories. A box of 12 MREs costs about $75. So for $300 you can have an emergency food reserve that supports 4 adults for 6 days.

Recent news about food shortage and food price increases have created a huge increase in demand for freeze dried food as well as MRE, so if you need to prepare for this season you really need to act now.

MREs are available at local camping and some other outdoor stores. They are also available online but I would avoid eBay as you have no idea what you are getting, some or all of the MRE may be old and close the expiry date. Also if you see marked military MRE, please note that It is illegal to sell military MRE.

MRE (meals ready to eat) Food Reserves

72 hour survival kit

MREs for Hurricane Preparation

By Rayven Perkins

Its almost hurricane season again! And time to get our supplies ready in case we get hit again this year. I have personally been through four hurricanes, three of which hit during a two-month period during 2004. I have stayed in my home for all four hurricanes and have learned a thing or two about the best supplies to have on hand.

Bar none, the best food supplies to have on hand are MREs. MRE stands for Meal Ready to Eat. They are United States military rations that have become available on the civilian market. MREs are an all in one meal kit. Packaged in a waterproof bag, they contain items such as an entree, side dish, snack item, beverage base, and dessert.

They contain a food heater that is activated by a very small amount of water, and even have an accessory pack with condiments and utensils. Heck, they even have toilet paper in them!

MREs have a shelf life of up to 10 years when stored properly. They are a great item to have on hand for any sort of emergency. They certainly came in handy for us when we had them in 2004. The first hurricane, Hurricane Charley, caused our electricity to go out for 5 days. We did not suffer any structural damage, luckily, but we lost all the contents of our fridge and freezer.

We had actually forgotten all about our MREs at the time. We did not properly prepare for Hurricane Charley. We had that “it won’t happen to us” mentality.

After the hurricane, we spent two days eating cold spaghetti-o’s before we remembered the box of MREs we had purchased for camping. Out they came! The whole family ate much better those last three days without electricity than the first two! Between the hurricanes, we did have the sense to restock our Meals Ready to Eat and have always made it a point to keep them on hand since then.

The second hurricane that hit us that year did some structural damage, but we retained power. The third hurricane left us without power again, this time for over a week. With two small children at home, I can tell you that hurricane season that year was not fun. In Central Florida, you need air conditioning to survive. Going a few weeks without air conditioning was trying to say the least.

Couple that with being holed up in a dark apartment with no TV, little light, and nothing to do. The only thing to break the monotony of those days was the fun we had when we ate our MRE meals. The kids (and adults) had a blast opening up each bag, cooking the entrees over the flameless heater, and devouring the interesting snacks provided. It was the only source of amusement during this trying time.

In short, every hurricane preparedness pantry needs to have a case of Meals Ready to Eat available, not just for food, but to break up the boredom.

Rayven Perkins is a stay home mom who has put together a resource on MREs, including where to find the best prices for purchasing them. Visit her website at: Discount MREs

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rayven_Perkins
http://EzineArticles.com/?MREs-for-Hurricane-Preparation&id=1120493

MRE (meals ready to eat) Food Reserves

72 hour survival kit

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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.