Nitro-Pak offers several food reserves but their premiere food reserve is the Ultimate-Pak™.

The Ulitmate-Pak™ is a one year supply for one person or 3 month supply for 4 people. It consists of 204 #10 cans, about half of which is Mountain House freeze dried food. FYI - #10 cans are 5/6th of a gallon restaurant size cans that most long storing food reserves come in.

The Ultimate-Pak™ supplies an average of 2440 calories per day which is above the RDA requirement and much higher than most other food reserve packages sold online.  As you can see from the analysis chart below the diet is a big breakfast, light lunch, and large dinner.

Ultimate-Pak

One thing that sticks out in this food reserve is it’s completeness and variety. It has good variety of vegetables and fiber as well as carbs and protein. There are 18 #10 cans of Nutty Breakfast Granola, 12 Cans of  6-Grain Cereal Blend, and 12 Cans of Quick Cooking Rolled Oats in the breakfast part of the reserve. This variety also lowers the average daily sodium intake that other food reserves run into trouble with (Detailed contents of the food reserve are list on Nitro-Pak’s website).

Also important is that it has 20 cans of beverage mixes, something that other food reserve packages overlook or have too little of.

The 38 cans of dinner entrees come in 18 different varieties. Having variety will help keep morale up in stressful situation and this amount of variety is probably as much as most people eat normally. However having variety when using the cans will be better for 4 people over 3 months, as once you open a #10 can, it will last only a few weeks.

Also of great value is that all the contents of the food reserve are no-cooking, no-preparation foods that can be ready in a few minutes. Your time will be much more valuable in a disaster to be used in other activities than cooking meals.

Other food reserves choose lower cost raw ingredients so may have a lower average cost per #10 can, but have an enormous total cost in terms of your time and require access to energy for cooking that might not always be available.

The Nitro-Pak supplied contents (indicated by “NP”) of the food reserve that are not Mountain House freeze dried food will have a shorter shelf life than 25 years. Most of these NP items being sealed in #10 cans will have 10-15 years shelf life. However items such as the breakfast grains mentioned above are items you can consume periodically (8 -10 years) and re-order with the cost not being much more than what you would buy from the grocery store.

Overall I can easily say that the Ultimate-Pak™ food reserve from Nitro-Pak offers the most complete food reserve online and has the highest value of food reserves I have looked at to date.

I have seen reports on various sites that say that Mountain House will not be selling #10 cans on their website until the end of 2009.

This statement is correct.

I called Mountain House customer service and they confirmed this is the case. An updated notice should appear on their website soon.

However it was also being said that dealers only had limited supply of Mountain House #10 cans and after that dealers could be out of stock for as long as 20 weeks!

The above statement is not correct!

Mountain House customer service confirmed that they would continue to supply their TOP DEALERS.

The supply is limited and on allocation to these dealers due to high demand.

I called Nitro-Pak customer service and they confirmed that they will continue to take orders and shipping lead times are at present 2-4 weeks and will continue into the foreseeable future. This applies to #10 cans sold by themselves and special food reserve packages.

However since the supply of #10 cans from Mountain House is on limited allocation to dealers, if demand increases even more, the lead times will only get longer.

However you will still get freeze dried food in #10 cans if and when you order from their dealers, the question is just on how long it will take to get delivery.

As mentioned in a previous post, Mountain House #10 cans are still available at Nitro-Pak and other online retailers but the lead times have increased to 3-7 weeks.

Today I noticed that the Mountain House #10 can individual entrees and 6 can cases had disappeared from Nitro-Pak’s website.

The mountain house freeze dried food reserves, year’s supply, variety packs, and group food reserve units were still there and on sale but with aforementioned 3-7 week lead times.

I called Nitro-pak and spoke with Lisa in customer service. I confirmed that they were still shipping food reserve packages listed above but they have temporarily stopped selling the individual #10 can entrees and cases to devote all allocated supply to their food reserve packages and 6 can cases.

Lisa said they hoped to resume those sales by June 15th. So there is no need to panic.

You can still buy Mountain House food reserves packages now at the 3-7 week lead time.

This statement, in an American Red Cross press press release from August 2007 (below), tells you that there is a need to make things easier.

Otherwise, if it is not made easy as another statistic in the same press release indicates, 93% will continue to not be prepared.

You can order online an 72 hour emergency kit, with all the supplies the Red Cross recommends, in minutes.

You can order kits and long shelf life survival food from trusted online stores that existed for decades as real brick and mortar stores, not some fly-by-night “eBay store”.

The two main survival foods (after food bars in 72 hour kits) are MRE (meals ready to eat) and Freeze dried food. You can order various food reserves that will be enough food for one week, one month, or even one year. It can be delivered to your house and then stored in less than an hour.

How easy is that?

MRE can last up to 5-7 years if stored in a cool place. Freeze dried food will last up to 30 years. You won’t need to replace these items every 6 months or every year. This is a key point if you want your food reserve to be ready when you need it, without having to replace parts of it often.

The challenge with completing the 72-hour kits will be the things that are custom to you and your family; maps, medications, etc that can’t be included in a general 72 hour kit. Other than these custom items, everything else is only few mouse clicks to your door.

Where can I buy kits and survival food?

American Family Safety - Great Selection of 72 hour kits

Nitro-Pak - 72-hour kits MRE Freeze Dried Food

Below is the August 30, 2007 press release from the American Red Cross

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Media Advisory:

September is National Preparedness Month: Only 7% of Americans Have Taken the Necessary Steps to Prepare for Disasters

Red Cross Survey Indicates 82% of Americans Would Get Prepared if it Was Easier to Do

WASHINGTON, Thursday, August 30, 2007

VIDEO FEEDS: Thursday, August 30, from 2:30 – 2:45 PM ET

September is National Preparedness Month yet only 7% of Americans have taken the steps necessary to get prepared, according to the American Red Cross ¹ . Why? Many people just don’t have the time. In fact, an American Red Cross survey indicates that 82% of Americans say they would get prepared if it were easier to do ². Additionally, among Americans who had not put together a disaster kit, 65% agreed that they would be more likely to have a kit if one were available for sale and contained basic items to get them started ³.

The Red Cross is using National Preparedness Month to urge every family to “Be Red Cross Ready”: to get a kit, make a plan and be informed. One way the American Red Cross has made it easier for families to get prepared is by offering a variety of first aid, health, safety, and emergency preparedness items.

“We’ve tried to make it as simple as possible for everyone to get prepared,” said Laura Howe, spokes-person for the Red Cross. “In purchasing these items, the public can feel good about not only preparing their families but also supporting the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross.”

Red Cross items available to the public include first aid kits, disposable and heavy-duty work gloves, hand sanitizer, emergency preparedness kits, hand-crank radios, auto safety kits, and a variety of essential education guides. Additionally, the Red Cross has a line of infant health and wellness products that help par-ents get prepared, encouraging them to take Red Cross courses in infant first aid and CPR. These items are available online, at many Red Cross chapters, and at a variety of retail locations nationwide.

Proceeds from the sale of these items go directly back into supporting the mission of the organization. Over the last few months, the Red Cross has responded to meet the needs of thousands of disaster victims affected by severe summer floods in nine different states; every dollar helps.

The public is also invited to take a free online education module available at www.redcross.org/BeRedCrossReady, which walks visitors through the three simple preparedness actions: to get a kit, make a plan and be informed.

This story is provided by the American Red Cross.

I have done some research and have some further comments of my own and clarifications on water storage. Thanks for the excellent article on water storage by Terry Fitzroy of Survival Solutions published in a previous post here on Bulk Survival Food.

There was a suggestion in that article that you should drink 8 glasses or 64 ounces of water a day. This is a myth so pervasive medical professionals sometimes say it. Medical journals found no research supports this anywhere and have traced the myth back to a mis-interpretation of a 1945 medical report.

The fact is most of the 64 ounces of water is contained in the food we eat. That is if what you are eating is a healthy well balanced diet. Read this British Medical Journal article that quotes the 1945 report “One origin may be a 1945 recommendation that stated: A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 litres daily in most instances. An ordinary standard for diverse persons is 1 millilitre for each calorie of food. Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods“.

Over time it appears most people, even doctors, have forgotten the key second sentence in bold above.

If you are eating MRE food reserve in a disaster, most of the 64 ounces (~2.5 liters) of the water is already in the food. If you use a Freeze Dried Food food reserve , you need store more water to hydrate the food when you eat, but the water you use to hydrate the food all ends up in your body when you eat it.

That said, then what is the real amount water storage needed for emergency preparedness?

The Red Cross and FEMA say one gallon of water per day in their “Preparing for Disaster” pdf (on page 8), but this for a “3 day supply kit”. So perhaps this does not include water requirements for hygiene? Does it assume you have also included in your 3 day kit mostly canned food that has water in the food as opposed dry grains and cereals which will need a lot more clean drinkable water to cook?

www.72hours.org offered this advice on water “Store one gallon of water, per person, per day. This amount will be adequate for general drinking purposes. Three gallons per person per day will give you enough to cook and for limited personal hygiene.”

They also advised to replace unopened stored bottled water once a year.

Perhaps you can plan to replace the water each year the day before or the day after your birthday so you will remember to do it. Or Perhaps we should have a “Preparedness Day” holiday so that we can do once a year whatever needs to be done that year like throwing out the canned food and bottled water and replace it with a new supply for another year. I am sure the food industry will be all for this holiday, they should take the cue from the chocolate and flower people for what they did to create Valentine’s day. Let’s move on.

So the answer, in terms of clean water storage for consumption, appears to be 1 to 3 gallons per person per day depending on whether you are using water for cooking.

If your survival food store is MRE then your requirement will be closer to 1 gallon per day, and 1.5 gallons if you use Freeze Dried Food.

You may think there is an advantage to MRE here but you will need the same if not more storage space for the same period of food support for MRE due to package density of MRE. As well you will always have more options in terms of water resource allocation as the additional water you store for Freeze Dried Food can be used for other purposes if it makes sense, while with MRE the water that is already in the food can’t be practically extracted out.

The best way to safely store water is in food grade containers like the ones below. With stabilizer applied and containers properly sealed water will be good to drink for 5 years. Click on the pictures of the containers to get more information on them;

30 gallon container, 4 per package at Nitro-Pak

55 gallon container, 4 per package at Nitro-Pak

What if you did not prepare water before an emergency?

Here is some excellent information from Public Heath of Seattle and King county on “How to prepare safe water after a disaster”.

Platinum Food Reserve

4 People for 3 Mo. or one person for a year.

This bulk freeze dried food reserve is on sale now (at the time of this post) for $2789 (regular $3155).

“…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 resturant size cans) that comes packed in 28 cases for easy storage.”

 Mountian House #10 Freeze Dried Food

Freeze Dried Meals

Per Nitro-Pak website;

Our “Easy Meal Security-Pak™”
Provides 45 Gourmet Meals… Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner for
One Person for 45 Days, A Family of 5 for 9 Days, or 15 People for 3 Days!

NEW Improved MRE’s for 2008:

The BEST just got better! The MRE business has been tough for some time with suppliers torn from one disaster to the next and with the war. Supplies have been short and selection has been terrible… until now. We have just contracted with a major MRE supplier to provide our customers with all FRESH component MRE’s and meals (not old scraped together surplus or 2 to 3 year old stock). Unlike some dealers who provide just 2 to 4 different entree choices, we provide SIX (6) DIFFERENT Premium meal entrees x 2! In Addition, everyone of our meals includes a MRE side dish! That’s an ADDED SAVINGS of up to $12 per case you would have to pay if you…….

Freeze Dried Food Reserve Information

You have probably tried freeze dried food as a “Nasa Astronaut” ice-cream novelty, or more recently, as a fruit dessert injected with chocolate.

However freeze dried food has characteristics that make it great for a survival food reserve.

• Freeze dried food can last up to 30 years if stored properly
• It can be stored in a much smaller space than other food reserves
• Can be eaten just by adding water to hydrate
• Retains the taste of fresh food, not canned food
• In bulk can cost can be less than $3.00 per meal

A Large quantity, up to one year of freeze dried food can be stored in a pallet sized space. I would try a smaller freeze dried meal pak first with my family to decide if it is right for you.

Freeze Dried Food comes in paks oftern used by hikers and #10 cans from Mountain House. It is important to note that paks only last 6-7 years where the #10 cans can last upto 30 years if stored in a cool dry place. The cans last longer because they are better sealed and nitrogen packed. Nitrogen displaces the air and so there is no oxygen in the cans which gives them long life. This is better than vacuum packing.

You will need to have water available to re-hydrate the freeze dried food. Total water reserve for should be 1 to 1.5 gallons per person per day.

The one advantage MRE has over Freeze dried food is that MRE is better suited to “on the go” situations since it does not require water and usually comes with “flameless ration heaters”. But MRE only store 6-7 years.

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 $1053 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 $3375 , 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.”

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. Nitro-pak" rel="tag" href="http://www.tkqlhce.com/gc66ox52x4KNUMQTTMKMLORQTPS?sid=10cansFR_PouchVS10cans_intext&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nitro-pak.com%2Findex.php%3FcPath%3D147_148">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

Mountain House Just In Case Unit

Mountain House #10 can Food Reserves

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MRE Information

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

There are two categories of MRE, military MRE and commecial MRE.

Military meals ready to eat are made for the US military and the armed forces of other countries. They are sometimes sold on eBay but there is risk there as the military considers this illegal as they want to discourage theft of their property. There is also risk as the age and storage conditions the MRE experienced before you bought it will be unknown  perhaps even to the seller.  Military MRE cased of 12 sell for as little as $40 on eBay ($3.33 per meal) which is less than $72 ($6 per meal) average case price of commercial MRE. Besides risk you should also consider shipping costs which online retailers may charge less than $15 where eBay  sellers sometimes charge a lot more for shipping and “handling”.

The main difference between military and commercial MRE (that is good commercial MRE from main brands such as Sopakco, MRE Star, aPack) is calories and sodium levels. Military MRE has high sodium content as they are intended for short term on the go use. Military MRE has 1250 to 1300 calories whereas until recently commercial MREs had less. Some commercial MREs have only 700 calories.  MRE Star’s commercial MREs now have average of 1,100-1,300 calories. They are avaialable at Nitro-pak.

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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