Will You Have Edible Survival Food When You Need It?
Can you rely on adequate government support, especially food, 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 for disasters, according to the American Red Cross. Why?
Most people want to be prepared, but what we need is a food reserve that easily obtained only once and requires little or no maintenance until it is needed. In terms of food preparedness, that means food that doesn’t need to be thrown out and replaced every year or two.
An emergency food reserve should not be food that is radically different from the types of food we regularly eat, nor should preparing it require a huge effort. It should not be rotten, rancid, or otherwise barely edible when you may need it, next week, or years from now.
What food reserves best avoid these problems?
Finally you also want an affordable food reserve that has a reasonable cost per meal, not much more than what you pay per meal everyday for you and your family. A food supply large enough that it will last weeks or months if you need it.
I have sorted through the pros and cons of various survival food options below with these needs in mind.
Two options that you may not be as familiar with are MRE (meals ready to eat) and Freeze Dried Food. MRE is what the military uses for mobile activities, but it is available from the same manufactures as civilian MRE.
Freeze dried food is a more longer storing type of food reserve that is also used by the military and government agencies.
Both freeze dried and MRE are often overlooked. When we first start thinking about food preparedness, we think bulk food storage such as bulk rice, bulk wheat, bulk flour, bulk sugar, and canned food reserves. These bulk foods have some real drawbacks. So you would be severely limiting your choices if you did not consider MRE and freeze dried food.
Freeze dried food and MRE have long to very long storage life for emergency food reserves and most importantly require little or no preparation, water, and no cooking equipment.
Here are some commercial examples of MRE & freeze dried food;
Bulk Freeze Dried Food Examples
Various Freeze Dried Food Reserves at Nitro-Pak
Various Freeze Dried Food Reserves at The ReadyStore
MRE Case & Pallet Examples
Various Bulk MRE (meals ready to eat)
If you 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.
Survival Food Options
What are the options for food emergency preparedness?
The conventional wisdom offered by our governments and dedicated survivalists is to go to your local supermarket or big box store and buy canned food and dry grains and carefully store them. There are limitations to this survival food strategy that are highlighted below.
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 a few hours or less for a 72-hour or one week reserve.
Disadvantages
- Most will forget and some will 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 in a diet are drastically changed.
Survival Food Option 2 - Buy Canned Food and Dry Grains and use them regularly 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
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
Various Freeze Dried Food Reserves at Nitro-Pak
Various Freeze Dried Food Reserves at The ReadyStore
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 $3.00 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.
KT
Bulk Emergency Food - Freeze Dried Food and MRE Options
Freeze Dried Food
Family One year Food Reserves
Group Food Reserve 50 people X 7 days or 10 people X 35 days
45 day - 6 weeks Freeze Dried Food
MRE
Bulk MRE (meals ready to eat)
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Freeze Dried Food Reserve Packages
Mountain House 4 person 3 month “dinner Entree-pak”
True food preparedness means;
- A food reserve with variety that tastes good so people can eat and be satisfied
- Food that is simple and easy to prepare even in a disaster
- 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.”
Nitro-Pak is where you can get;
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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