Survival Food - Freeze Dried & MRE

Nitro-pak has lowered pricing on the following food reserves;

• Ultimate Pak  (204 #10 cans) - Now $3998 (was $4275)

• Platinum Reserve (168 #10 cans) - Now $2998 (was $3375)

These are mixed survival food reserves mostly Mountain House freeze dried entrees and sides with some bulk oats and staples.

Freeze dried food prices increased in August 2008 when supplies were in shortage situation after heavy purchases as the price of oil went up to $140 per barrel. Freeze dried food supply eased temporarily then tightened again in October 2008 due to the global collapse of financial markets. Since then the supply has eased except for a few weeks in May 2009 due to H1N1 pandemic scare.

It seems now supply is good and prices are coming down as fear and concern over the economy has subsided.

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

Survival food reserves with Mountain House freeze dried food are now back to normal lead times.

A recent spike in demand due to swine flu has subsided.

It had been taking 5-10 days to process orders at some suppliers due to high volumes.

The situation during the swine flu pandemic threat was much better than May 2008.

Then survivalists worried about ‘peak oil’ collapse  caused lead times to go out to 7 to 8 weeks in some cases. Supplies of Mountain House freeze dried food were cut off to just a few online distributors at that time. Rumors circulated at that time suggested there would be as longs as a 20 week lead time on Mountain House freeze dried foods. These rumors turned out to be just rumors as the lead dropped to few days once the oil price dropped last summer.

The price of freeze dried food went up 10% to 15% at this time and has not come down since.

The lead time on freeze dried food increased again in October and November of  2008 as worries of a global economic collapse fueled rabid sales of freeze dried food. Demand remained strong till March but lead times returned to normal. I have observed during this time that when the daily stock market went up sales of freeze dried food go down and vice-versa.  It is probably not a good idea to make long term decisions on preparedness based on day to day news.

With swine flu pandemic threat arising, sales skyrocketed again causing longer lead times but this only lasted a few weeks.

Freeze dried food, which in Mountain House #10 cans can last up to 25 years is a good long term insurance policy against disasters. Threats of disaster come and go but you want to be ready when you need to be. It is best not to wait till there is a threat and lead times get long and prices go up.

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?

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.

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.

Long Term Food Storage

• Traditionally methods of storing canned food and dried food in containers
• Some Practices derived from Church of LDS (Mormon) who advise members keep years supply of food
• Recently LDS counseled members to start with 3 month supply food storage
• General population interested in food storage for preparedness are utilizing LDS knowledge and resources
• Freeze Dried Food is an easy alternative to these traditional food storage methods for those in urban areas with limited space.
• Most freeze dried food distributors located in Utah or Oregon that had mainly served LDS members now have grown to have a wide customer base across USA.
• Online sales of freeze dried food as a long term food reserve have increased by over 500% in 2008.

There is a need and great value of having a food reserve for tough economic times. The chances of a depression have increased greatly since I wrote about it on September 15th, and many will experience hardships for sure.

Some are stating that if there is a depression it will not be as severe as the “Great depression” that occurred last century. Of course the same people were saying just a few weeks ago the worst of the bank troubles were behind us.

So is there need for a food reserve? What type of food reserve is the best value?

First, the need for a food reserve is greater now than in the past. At the worst part of the great depression unemployment reached a high of 25%. Anyone who read John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” will have a feel for what it was like for people in rural areas trying to survive.

However there is a big difference between now and then.  Then much of the population was rural and able to revert to a sustenance economy to get food to just barely survive the crisis. Now most of our population is urban. Most people will be totally dependent on food supplied in markets. Adding to this is the fact many foods are imported. Further, even non-perishable food is managed with tightly controlled “just in time” inventory to maximize profits. In a global crisis food imports are likely to dwindle as nations focus on self preservation. Food stock-outs will be more common. There may difficulty in getting food and prices will rise.

What food reserve is the best value?

For the same reasons that I strongly recommend freeze dried food for disasters, it is also the best value for hard economic times. It is easy to store, only needs water, no preparation or cooking required, and has long storage of up to 25 years. It can provide food insurance protection for a long time.

It is also better from a community perspective because when you buy freeze dried food you are actually increasing the future food supply for all by utilizing food available now before there is a shortage.

By having a food reserve to draw from in hard times with food shortages,  you will be able to leave food on the store shelf for those who do not have a food reserve.

A lesson from “The Grapes of Wrath” is that we all do better as a community helping each other.

Having a food reserve will enable you to make a contribution when the time comes, either by leaving food for others at the supermarket and also by sharing the reserves you have with those most in need.

An important final note is that freeze dried food while readily available now, has earlier this year experienced long lead times of 6-8 weeks, during heightened concern about high oil prices and related food price increases.